By: Peter Morsellino
Album Type: Split
Album Type: Split
“Split” CD//DD track listing:
2). Blunt Horse, “Radiation Poisoning”
3). Blunt Horse, “No Reprise”
4). Grilth, “Foul Beast Head”
5). Grilth, “Crooked Back And Broken Spirit”
The Review:
Washington DC/San Diego based Blunt Horse teams with Buffalo NY’s Grilth on their new split EP to deliver a genre mashing head trip of epic proportions. These two groups complement each other excellently, making for a superb listening experience for any listener with a taste for sludge inspired grooves.
Blunt Horse crashes through the gate first with a fury of vintage riffing in “Nuke the Blow”. The pace is frantic to begin with, but quickly falls into a leveled but energetic groove. Riffs are filled with psyched out prog vibes. Guitar and bass tracks intermingle with each other beautifully as an aggressive, yet dutiful rhythm carries the beat throughout the songs ever escalating fever pitch. “Radiation Poisoning” offers the briefest of interludes before “No Reprise” fills the listener’s head with a continuation of the sonic assault. “No Reprise” features a bit more of a varied sound than its predecessor, with a hard soft dynamic carrying the song through the genre hopping psychedelia of vintage tinged riffing and theatrical vocals.
Next up comes Grilth, with trippy and hypnotizing riffs enveloping the listener on “Foul Beast Ahead”. Heavy repetition with slight variation encompasses the early minutes of the track, creating a mesmerizing experience that really grips the listener. The mix sits pretty with the band’s instruments all intermingling wonderfully with the vocals. The second half of the track takes on a more frantic pace while adopting the same elements of hypnotic riffing. This formula holds true for Grilth’s second offering, “Crooked Back and Broken Spirit”. Sludgy riffing dominates the sonic air, while restrained grooves provide a thoughtful backdrop for the pained moans of the vocals.
Grilth and Blunt Horse provide an excellent look at opposite sides of the same coin on this EP. Blunt Horse taking their epic and theatrical approach to the sludge genre while Grilith provide a heavy as lead, trance inducing stupor. It creates a listening experience filled with long play dynamics that make for a very pleasant half hour of heavy ass music for your listening pleasure. I like to take this one in as a solid piece, which is not something that always works out on a split EP. I absolutely recommend it.
“Split” is available HERE
Band info: facebook
