What’s up, Motherpeckers? It seems the fall is a little dry, at least this part anyway, so let’s plow through this.
We’re going to start with the fucking evil HOODED MENACE, Effigies of Evil. This is old school death metal, and I mean old school. Slow, mean, nasty, heavy: These guys don’t need blasts to make one’s bowels quiver. Raspy low vocals over killer grooves with the occasional two-part guitar harmony thrown in. If you’re already a fan, you know what to expect; if you’re not, expect heavy, doomy riffage with very traditional Euro death vocals. If I had one complaint, it’d be that the production here is almost TOO good. I mean, you want a band like this to reek through your turntable, to make you dirty just listening to it. You really can’t hear the bepatched denim jacket here; that is EOE’s only real downfall in this bird’s eyes. Anyway, I digress. The new HOODED MENACE is really good, so go check it out. 7 Fucking Pecks.
Need therapy? Remember the mid ’90s, when there were noise rock bands and a lot of them got signed to majors? Well, the Helmet/Jawbreaker-y THERAPY? is at it again. They never really gave up, but in this feathered opine, they should have. Gone are the days of grunge and the music influenced by it. This band was kind of cool back in the day (see above video), but now kind of just comes off dated and goofy, and A Brief Crack of Light drives that point home again. Anyway, this thing sounds like a cross between, well, Helmet and Jawbreaker. Watered-down noise-rock grunge with no teeth at all, it’s about as fierce as a wet rag, and although it moves, the riffs never really seem to match up, with lyrics that are intended to be edgy, but aren’t really. Do yourself a favor and got get their record Nurse; or better yet, go get some old Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop, or something like that. Stay away from this. 2 Fucking Pecks.
Fuck yeah, haarp. No, not the high-frequency active auroral research program; the band from New Orleans. Slow and thundering, mean and punishing, although calling them slow seems unfair. haarp are not a doom band; slow yes, but not doom. It moves, it grooves. This three-song full length, their second, clocks in at 40 minutes and is punishing, slow, low and heavy with screamed guttural vocals. This is music that could only come from NOLA; it’s twisted and sick. Something primordial crawled out of the swamp, and that something is Husks by haarp coming out on Housecore Records. 7 Fucking Pecks.
So, my old school peck here today will be COP SHOOT COP (buy drugs, shoot drugs, buy drugs, for those not in the know) because that Therapy? record really pecking bummed me out. Two bass players, noise, punk, jazz and whatever.
