What’s going on there? You know me, it’s your old boy Waldo spitting all the hate (or love) for some new releases.
So first up is the Gnaw Their Tongues/Crowhurst collab entitled Burning Ad Infinitum: A Collaboration. For those not in the know, both are one-man projects, from the Netherlands and the US respectively. So what about this? I’d first like to say that the art here is killer, and is a collab between two different artists. What about the music, Waldo? I knew you’d ask… so this is noisy, I mean really noisy. Noise passages give way to bursts of furious blasts with what can only be described as howling over top of them. There are guitars and drums and noise. This thing is dark, bleak and mean. The burst of “music,” both blasts and sludgy make this feel fresh and not tiresome at all… I’m pecking into it. Phenomenal work.
8 Fucking Pecks.
The German sludge metal duo Mantar are releasing The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze on Nuclear Blast. I’ve gotta say, this pretty much rips. This is their 3rd LP, and Mantar have made quite a name for themselves. Sludgy (not really sludge) riffs with screamed vocals that give way to melodic riffs or bursts of energy that leave the listener pumped up. To call this “sludge” in the traditional sense is really unfair, this rocks, but not in a rock and roll sorta way; it just hits hard. Why this band is not bigger is beyond me. There’s just a nastiness to them that can’t be touched. I really liked their last effort, Ode to the Flame, and as a follow up, this does NOT disappoint. Peck this out so you can say you were there when they blow up.
8 Fucking Pecks.
So there’s a French band called Le Kraken (which means “The Kraken” to you monolinguists). They are releasing De Paille et D’or. As my French is a little rusty (that’s right, a parrot can speak MANY languages), it translates something to like “The Wisp and Or” (I know this is wrong). Surprisingly, I like this. This is rock at its roots, but is nasty enough and moves enough to have one foot firmly planted in metal. Kinda hard to pigeonhole, but I’d say think of a more stripped down Baroness. Discordant passages that kind of build up to a more epic sort of thing with screamed vocals. This is not usually my thing, but this is beaking cool. Check it out.
7 Fucking Pecks.
Well, that’s all folks. Until next time…
