Soilent Green
Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction
Metal Blade
No saints day
Sure, the city managed to snag the NBA All-Star Game, and plenty of celebrities will collect a paycheck to claim that everything’s peachy keen. But even if the grind is less grim for New Orleans residents, the poverty and powerlessness replaced by smiling tourist board PSAs, would that really stop the pissy drunk nogoodniks of NOLA metal from righteously hatin’? A longtime New Orleans delicacy, the latest plateful of Soilent Green’s sludgy grind is just as toxic to the taste buds as anything the band’s released over a decade of ups and downs, coming together to cook up another batch of crusty comfort food on Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction.
Soilent write songs like demolition derby crashes, with the 11 tracks of Inevitable rarely sitting still for more than 30 seconds before skidding violently into the next riff or rhythm. “Superstition Aimed at One’s Skull” starts off wah-wah boogie, lets loose a spray of machine-gun grind and gallops like four black metal horsemen before getting caught in a doomy mosh. It’s like sticking to one style makes them (dope) sick, so they keep moving, as likely to go loose, groovy hardcore (“Antioxidant”) as sick tech (“When All Roads Lead to Rome”). They’re still cheeky as hell, too: “In the Same Breath” and “Lovesick” both open with poignant back porch pickin’ before erupting into noise. Even if you’re sometimes left scrambling to keep up with Inevitable’s shifts, you sure won’t get bored. —Jess Harvell
