ALBUM REVIEW: Hawkbill - "Self Titled"

By: Grim Trashcan

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released:23/03/2017

Label: Independent

Track by track these rusted broke-down tractor boys weave a landscape that is reminiscent of the groovier parts of Grief or perhaps an even more slowed down and swampy take on some Weedeater.   With a natural emphasis on groove and natural timing and feel, this album moves like a sloth with a spliff in its mouth.

“Self Titled” DD track listing:

1). Blackened

2). Fever

3). Hate

4). Snakes

5). Knives

The Review:

A simple internet search on "Manchester, KYdemographics" reveals the catalyst in order to produce such a suffocated and frustrated brand of Southern sludge from the gloom merchants that go by Hawkbill. According to the County's facebook page; under sightseeing- one of the main attractions next to the Baptist Church is the Clay County Correctional Facility. Charming, wouldn't you agree? Become a pill-billy, praise Jesus or do what these fine young Southern Gentlemen did- channel your frustration and despair into a trance-inducing, hypnotic groove anti-hymnal for the dejected. 

Track by track these rusted broke-down tractor boys weave a landscape that is reminiscent of the groovier parts of Grief or perhaps an even more slowed down and swampy take on some Weedeater, with a natural emphasis on groove and natural timing and feel. I've always been a proponent that if it's from the South, it moves like a sloth with a spliff in its mouth. With track titles such as "Blackened", "Hate", "Snakes" and my personal favorite "Knives"...this stoned sloth has been left out in the rain for a week and ran into some train-hopping crust kids and is babbling incoherently about the vicious nature of a Clay County existence. The abstract, albeit psychotic metaphor of that last sentence may be an indicator of where this band's first self-recorded and produced effort puts you after a listen or two. 

Inspired guitar work, precise and tactful rhythms carried upon the rhinoceros that lives in the low-end via bass are drizzled and poured all over by psychotic and tortured howls that drip and melt all over the aural landscape. Imagine a stack of pancakes, made of solid hash and then pour a heroic dose level of some kind of maple syrup mind-fuck mushroom concoction that some mountain wizard bartered for with some ammunition a few years ago and that's what you're getting into with this Hawkbillendeavor. No...ManchesterI will not be stopping by to see your highlighted social media suggestions anytime soon. I'd rather admire what social quagmires and abject level poverty have produced from your denizens from a safe viewing and especially listening distance. Hat's off to Hawkbill. Grim Trashcan definitely approved!!!

“Hawkbill” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Grey Widow - "II"

By: Grim Trashcan

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 31/03/2017

Label: Independent

This is blackened crust, doomed and stoned at its purest, with angst and despair set to annihilate. Canyon-wide grooves completely assault your senses revealing every trick these sadistic sonic sorcerers have under their fetid robes. This album demands your full fucking sonic attention.

“II” track listing:

1). XI

2). XII

3). XIII

4). XIV

The Review:

Having been completely unfamiliar with this outfit from the UK, I found myself intrinsically digging through any and all online presence of Grey Widow.  Everything I found was like, well- what you might expect from a band who's facebook cover photo contains two key power words: "Annihilation//Amplification". Scrolling down the page, the band took a moment to set the record straight for any followers who may have felt they disappeared like fog mist or perhaps had fallen ill from a venomous sting. 

"After a year of inactivity, depression, solace and apathy, we have risen from the depths of our own human faeces and moulded a sound so heavy and thick it would flatten our meaningless existence on this cursed planet." - Excerpt issued by GWon 2/1/17. 

Four tracks each titled with a Numeral and in this case we find them at "XI". 

"Eleven is one louder" rang through my psyche as I pressed play  and was greeted with the tonal equivalent of lingering bong smoke covering a valley of moonlit shadows until meteoric shards of obsidian and granite pummel to the surface in rhythmic fashion to simultaneously clear away and form new plumes of presence. Everything here sits to set up and serve the song. There is a bright edge to every murky movement. This meticulous building takes place for near 4 minutes until the full force of Grey Widow reveals its callousness and true size. The engineered, meticulous and well-placed facets of this opening track hold steadfast to prove that the production value that Chris Fielding at Skyhammer Studios brings to the table is a thing of mythic proportions. He could probably make squirrels sound like elephants. The bass tone alone stands right along probably one of the deepest, thundering bass kicks ever recorded. Rhythmically, this band completely assaults you with flippant disregard at trying to ease you into a hypnotic state. They demand your full fucking sonic attention. Imagine getting dragged behind some kind of necromanced tank over a field of ash and bones. Pissed off and plodding. 

Having picked my head up off my table, "XII" takes off almost exactly where "XI" left you. Mid-paced and cruising along for a bit and then dropping down to pound you into submission. When the first verse takes form and the riff presents its fury, you pick up an almost Brainoil kind of vibe, but not completely. The vocals seem sort of stepped back from the overall mix and then the track kinda eases off completely almost to a relaxing point. Like a dragon rising above the clouds to take a break from toasting villagers in fiery breaths of death - this is a brief reprieve until its back down to crushing altitude. No, that's not a typo - fucking crushing altitude.  Clocking in at just shy of 8:30 and the second shortest track of the album, when it ends I actually wanted it to continue for twice as long. 

I think it was a deliberate choice because the organic extension that the next track "XIII" presents is literally the high water mark for this entire affair. Initially a faster paced intro followed by the setting of a canyon-wide groove where everything comes together to basically reveal every trick these sadistic sonic sorcerers have under their fetid robes. This is blackened crust doomed and stoned at its purest. Angst and despair set to annihilate. Layers of complexity which step forward and disappear so naturally it's downright unsettling. There's a presence here that makes me feel like this song has always existed and these Grey Widow blokes are the lucky ones to have communed with its presence and brought it to us in spectacular fashion. I must have re-listened to this particular track at least four or five times before writing this nonsense. 

The bummer side of doing this particular review was the logistical side of things. I received four ultra-top secret locked down Soundcloud links that I had to cue individually rather than just hit play from start to finish. That's the experience I feel this four song affair deserves. The final number finds us at "XIV" and that's where Grey Widow is most accessible sounding. Whatever that means. The shortest song, clocking it at a mere 7:20ish it's got a memorable hook, extended hypnotic riff structure and a slightly more percussive feel at points. By the way, the drums are mixed for lack of a better term "perfectly" for the entirety of this record. They have a depth and warmth that is pretty much a signature statement. The cymbals sound like living breathing entities rather than obnoxious brash significance constituting rhythmic flair and flash. There's deep murky tones and roomy, big ass bass on the stringed side of things but the drumming is in a spectrum of its own design.

This is a solid release and I'm stoked to have the opportunity to listen to it. Fingers crossed and I'll have a physical copy of it on my most preferred format: a tried and true slab of wax. Hat's off to the Grey Widow gang...you done turned this doom aficionado into an instant fan based off four behemoth sized songs.

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Gateway - “Scriptures of Grief”

By: Grim Trashcan

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released:03/02/2017
Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories

I hate to sound melodramatic or overstated but this was a completely other-worldly experience  ... the likes of which I'm still recovering from.

 

“Scriptures of Grief” CS//DD track listing:

1). I

2). II

3). III

The Review:

It can be said that in this modern age we all have a sense of universal gateways. Instant paths to information, shared experience and ideologies - for better or worse. The beckoning, albeit distracting handheld glow of our portable gateway devices. The altar of research and interaction that takes form as a desktop battle station or a convenient laptop. Your path to these gateways is not beset on all sides with a burden of gnosis, or a life resolute on mastering the arcane mysteries of the universe. The gateway is the path, and the path is the gateway. Sorry, I just got done listening to "Scriptures of Grief" by Gateway. 

Having emerged from the alternate plane that this Gateway release puts you - it's sort of difficult not to look at things a bit differently. Sure, blackened death doom is a thing and those words in conjunction sort of let you know what you're in for when you hear them - but this is something else. I hate to sound melodramatic or overstated but this was a completely other-worldly experience  ... the likes of which I'm still recovering from. 

Three tracks, titled as simple numerals - "I-II-III" comprise this album as ways to delineate three concise movements or phases. So for the sake of coherency I'll just refer to them as "parts". Part one is a telling display of this one man's death doom dealing abilities overall. The knack for creating atmosphere and laying a formidable track for you to attach yourself to. Clocking in at almost twelve and half minutes long it takes you through gravity questioning swirls and sweeps of low-end frequency annihilation and eerie distant digital percussion. A rare instance where mechanical drums actually fit to serve the experience. The guitar tone is for me, more reminiscent of early 90's drone distortion - a la early Earthwith sort of a destructive industrial warmth but sterility that beckons you near whilst burning and semi-sizzling your ear drums. In terms of vocal performance, it's more of a production than an outright telling. Deep, guttural bellows soaked in reverb so wet it glistens and drips. I'm reminded of bio-mechanic landscapes in the latest Doom video game and the sounds they would make when no one was fighting on them. 

Part two further delves into a more scientific and somewhat industrial conjuring of textures with the seamless transition from the first part. Marked by an increase in mechanical drum excellence, this part of the album wants to take you for a ride. Big breaks, followed by cliff-drops and more trudging with hypnotic guitar work and those calculated machinations that are the drums culminate to make this 8 and a half minute affair stand out resolute as a different phase of the album. Probably a deliberate notion to give the entire journey its height in intensity and callousness. Not a guitar solo in sight here - nor anywhere on this entire landscape. The guitar serves as solid slabs of gristle and glacial meat for the rest of the aural participants to feed from. 

Part three folds in organically at the brief respite that marks the transition. From there it’s an inevitable downhill affair with a final surge of tempo and intensity which disassembles and deconstructs to sub-sonic ruminations and rumblings encapsulated in yet another 8 and half minute dirge. Kind of like the slow motion death rattles of a wounded elder god - the dying breaths of a world destroyer. At somewhere around the 6 minute mark the song releases its final frustration in tempo and intensity to fall to the ground, awash in a fuzz tide and crispy wizard whispers. The gateway has closed and the scriptures have been read aloud. Time for you to return to the plane of the mundane mortal.

“Scriptures of Grief” is available Europe hereand USA/ROTW here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Weltesser - "Crestfallen"

By:  Grim Trashcan

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 27/01/2016

Label: Prosthetic Records

Weltesser magnificently blends elements of old-school sludge/punk sensibilities and white hot riff-manipulation with the precise amount of drawn out feedback manipulation that more than harshes your fucking mellow - it pisses all over it.

“Crestfallen” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Regret

2). Guide

3). Living to Try

4). Terminal

5). Rats

6). Crestfallen

The Review:

Full disclosure folks: I pre-ordered the physical release of this album based off one preview track months ago. Let your assumptions fly and cast your cynical flavor over this entire review if you must. That being said, "Crestfallen" by Weltesseris such a fucking banger on so many crucial levels - subjective bias can be blindly removed from the equation. 

On to more important matters: Sour Diesel. The promo sticker on this record makes mention of it in a phrase stating "fueled by sour diesel and misery". Perfect in such non-ironic fashion. When I think of the many strains of cannabis and the resulting psychoactive effects of each specific phenotype, sativa stands out as the intellectual, introspective, active cerebral champion of creativity and focus. A cleansing, rejuvenating experience that sort of hits the reset button on the stagnation of couch-locked pain mitigation and life's daily aches and woes. I'm looking at you, Indica. Weed references aside, Weltesser magnificently blends elements of old-school sludge/punk sensibilities and white hot riff-manipulation with the precise amount of drawn out feedback manipulation that more than harshes your fucking mellow - it pisses all over it. 

Listening to this, I can draw some similarities to old -(16)- material, sort of. There's an aggression here that is apparent but it comes off more frustrated and finite as opposed to raw and unbridled. The guitar tone skirts the plane between caustic mid-ranged savagery within the riff dynamic and then it gets accompanied by what sounds like another guitar but is actually the bass providing bright swaths of feedback manipulation in breakdowns and transitions. Other times, the roles are cleverly reversed while the bass slams along on a trance inducing pattern and the guitar screams the complimentary sirens. The opposing dynamics offer pretty much the space and breathing room for the drummer to handle his role in perfectly understated and civilized fashion, sneaking in high-hat commas and periods on groove based sentences. Dynamics in dissonance. Emphasis on feel and timing. No more is that expressed in the title track at the very end of the record. As a complete listening experience - it seems like the relatively quickly moving tracks lead you to the final push that is "Crestfallen". 

The entire album tears along at such a perfect pace, with catch your breath moments that get growl-howled over like the stand out stretch that occurs early on in the track "Guide". Yelled melody with a deliverance that conveys more than anger- seemingly cathartic release. The transition from the ending of that song into "Living to Try" should be a case-study example for all aspiring sonic dark sorcerers in how to draw in pure shadow. This doesn't sound like misery and doom for the sake of being miserable and doomed. It sounds like an anxious spirit trying to navigate the crumbling, failing nature of existence and interaction within either itself or its surroundings. We've all been there. One too many edibles in a social setting and your soul literally shudders from its own presence. 

An overview at the lyric sheet/insert that accompanied this record revealed much more to me than I had expected. As sort of a mission statement or parameter setting series of phrases the group has decided to share some words of wisdom to the listener: "It is hard to desire consciousness. Watching people live their lives, fighting tirelessly for a home that has already been wasted. It's exhausting. Constantly checking myself, constantly working for a better stay, but it will never be better. The redundancy of our music, of our words, is to push this subject. It will never be better. You will always be working on yourself. You will always be anxious and alone. Your friends and family mean nothing. You'll amount to nothing. Remember that." 

Got it? In case you forget, you can get re-assured by the final and my favorite experience on this offering - the epic 8 minute title track.   From silence barks out pretty much the over-arcing theme and value of this record - dealing with life as it is presented to you. To literally live in your anxieties because ultimately you'll amount to nothing. Also on display during this last song is the bands talent at locking in those perfectly synchronized, sort of abstract feedback moments that if not handled properly or overdone by some could border on obnoxious or pretentious. Not so in this application at all.

This record is great and you should buy it. Not because I said so, but because you need to hear this. It's something new on so many levels and if it doesn't serve to help you question what this proposed genre is doing or can be capable of - then I feel bad for you. I'm glad this album exists. When it ends I literally take a deep breath and feel as if the band has helped me take it. A reset button on stagnation and couch-lock. 

“Crestfallen” is available here

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

EP REVIEW: Grim Ravine - "The Light is From Below"

By: Grim Trashcan

Album Type: EP

Date Released: 17/02/2017

Label: Black Bow Records

“The Light is From Below” DD track listing:

1). Shrine of Misery

2). Translunary

3). Hypernova

4). Vacant Mass

The Review:

After my sixth or seventh uninterrupted listen of "The Light is From Below", I almost feel like I can invoke words to properly explain what kind of magic lies within.

Perhaps I measure too much? Sulking over my illuminated keyboard in a poorly lit room, slack-jawed from a day of dealing with life's responsibilities and managing the expectations of others takes its grinding toll. That's where my ritualistic evening reprieve takes form in the sonic conjuring of doom warlocks Grim Ravine. Having been somewhat familiar to this outfits output; the self-titled EP, I was looking forward to hearing what came next.

Hair standing on the back of my neck, chills running from my shoulders across my chest, down my spine and grounding out into the floor is what came next.

The jarring intro to the album's opening track, "Shrine of Misery" makes you appreciate the ability this band has in composing with a long-form sensibility. Imagine a mud-slicked boulder, ripped loose by a torrential downpour and falling ever so destructively towards the bottom of a (forgive the obvious pun) ravine. The bassists tone flash like piano stabs under solar flares of guitar omnipresence. This is the doom of colors, textures and dynamics. Rasped, gasping guttural and freq-sweeping vocalist Gareth Nutbeen holds the listener present by not commanding your ears attention, rather demanding it. They've found the frequency balance here and it's a boulder toss by a behemoth in terms of production nuance in comparison to the first EP. Hats off to whatever entity focused this. 

As the first track settles down, a moment of bleak dynamics and mood-setting takes form in "Translunary". We are met with a hypnotic bass melody accompanied by the unsettling, glistening drips and cavern breaths of eerie presence,  ripped roughshod with an intro that sounds like your high school hippie art teacher having his head smashed into the glass bed of his overhead projector, then the third track "Hypernova" explodes into orbit. A mid-tempo affair, this one rolls like blood down an Orc's maw, only to pause and stretch, intermingle with battle sweat and spittle and drop to the mud. Once again, the sweeping sonic overlays and delicate production nuance don't exist to prove their existence, rather to add to it. Same is true for the singers' addition to this frenzy- he's not there to stand out on the battlefield as an aural target, more of an all- encompassing entity. As this track seizes and contorts to its inevitable demise, I find myself almost wanting to hit repeat to get dragged through once more. The drummers percussive balance sits solidly where it should, no diddling, noodling or gymnastics- a solid frame to hold this all up. It's a lot to hold, mind you. 

The fourth and final track, "Vacant Mass" rises from the depths of a feedback-induced droning lament. It then takes form, with vocal cues and then lifts off with the percussive timing and weight of exactly what the song is called, a mass rises and lifts. Somewhere around the 3 minute mark of this, you feel like you've reached a plateau of experience only to be jarred and shifted in other directions midway through minute 4. Not up or down, just outwards in all directions simultaneously. Halfway through this almost 13 minute affair, the entire mass explodes and you're made to tumble downwards on the monolithic shards of audio landscape. Just as you become familiar with the sense of melody or riff in this new spot, the song drops out and pans back to show you the vast space around you. Consumed by the experience laid from the beginning, they cleverly step you back from all of that and let you gain a sense of relative ease. To be charged and blasted once again into oblivion. 

Thanks Grim Ravine. You are an anomaly in it's purest definition. I can't describe your sounds succinctly enough to give them their due justice or proper praise. For me, that's probably the best compliment I can give. Perhaps I measure too much?

“The Light is From Below” will be available from 17^thFebruary 2017

Band info: bandcamp|| facebook

ALBUM REVIEW: Toke - "Orange"

By: Grim Trashcan

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 01/01/2017
Label: Independent |
Emetic Records (LP)

Toke seamlessly blends the precise amount of head crushing, belly thumping riffs with greasy, bluesy lead breaks and melody. This band has struck a balance between tried and true classic archetypes within this genre and has pushed the envelope in so many forms of noticeable nuance.

 

“Orange” CS//DD//LP track listing:

1. Within The Sinister Void
2. Weight Of The World
3. Blackened
4. Weak Life (Feat. T-Roy of Sourvein)
5. Legalize Sin
6. Four Hours For Hours

The Review:

There just has to be something about living in the South that makes you understand swing, groove, timing or "feel". Some folks are born with natural rhythm and it seems like second nature, a mere afterthought. Others train themselves meticulously to metronomes and calculated foot tapping. Toke; hailing from North Carolinafall seismically in the first camp. 

When I hear "North Carolina" my immediate thought is Weedeater, and when I hear the band name "Toke" my immediate thought is "well, I'll be damned". That thought is heard in my head with a southern drawl. A lazy, laid-back southern lilt of inflection that coaxes one into a natural state of ease, ready to hear more from that friendly Southern inner voice. That's when the opening riff from "Orange" fires up and its glowing heat draws you further in. Solidified by natural and solid drumming this experience just keeps on warming up. Definitely more of a guitar-oriented affair in comparison to something akin to Weedeater, where bass is the star at the frequency buffet, Toke seamlessly blends the precise amount of head crushing, belly thumping riffs with greasy, bluesy lead breaks and melody. The vocalists timbre and range can only be described as an old rotary phone echoing through the silence somewhere in the desolate woods.

This band has struck a balance between tried and true classic archetypes within this genre and has pushed the envelope in so many forms of noticeable nuance. The seemingly calculated choices when it came to where the drums sat in the mix, the bass owned and held upright the fluid frame of the masterful guitar work over which mid-ranged, musical raspy howls cried out were overall the feature of this release. Songwriting is so solid; I'd send it out to sea without fear of capsizing. This album more than floats, it navigates. 

“Orange” is available here and LP here

Band info: Facebook || Bandcamp