ninehertz

A round up of nine recent releases in bitesize review form...

The correct starting location for this round-up is Ipswich. Lebrique are deserving of a much more in-depth write up and will presumably get those elsewhere, but my underwhelming knowledge of the genres they reside in limit me to this short shower of praise. Produced by the inimitable Dave Vickers (of Berenice and A Horse Called War infamy), LBRQ is a powerhouse noise rock and post-hardcore EP powered by steamrolling riffs that will satisfy anyone. You know the good bits of post-metal when the track breaks free of its shackles? It’s got those too, but without having to sit around for seven minutes of boringness first. It has a real oomph to it, at times recalling Will Haven in their pomp. This is seriously good.

Over in Dublin we find the return of Wild Rocket, with a short stop gap and extremely neat concept release entitled Rocket Sweat Lodge (out on cassette via Camellia Sinensis). There are six tracks – two of “blown out space rock” and four of “complimentary sci-fi drone excursions”. The former are fantastic, urgent garage psych two minute riots, similar to the Riot Season school of psych (their other label). The drone tracks are truly from outer space, ambient then noise filled, alien noises from far off planets and full of deep space synths. The contrast, with the two “normal” songs spiking outward from the cosmic ambience makes it fascinating, and with all digital proceeds going to Medical Aid for Palestinians there’s no excuse not to explore the universe with them.

Our favourite punk teachers at Noise Merchant Records are still going strong, putting out batch after batch of punk tapes from around the world that I’d not hear otherwise. That’s actually not true for once (although only because they have previous on the label, which we played on our podcast) with Sluta Ljug, from Sweden. Their new ‘un Brinn! is only three tracks and seven minutes long, but it’s a thrill in every second. Feminist punk in gloriously hyper dbeat form, it is an invigorating listen. The vocals are something to behold, from the back of the gut, bottom of their heart, all anger at the world, all enjoyment of punk artistic expression; all put into the vocals so as to be surely a harsh pull on the throat. The closing Inte alla män slows it down considerably but intriguingly no less potent. Punk often loses something with the close inspection affordable when it isn’t flying past you at breakneck speed, but Sluta Ljug stand up and it’s an excellent end to a great EP.

Over in the United States, there’s been an avalanche of more than good sludge in the last month or so, and the following three snippet reviews are only the tip of the iceberg (to conflate two snow based cliches).

Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean are prime among them, an enormous back catalogue behind them and only getting stronger, as evidenced by the snappily titled I Tried Catching You but You Fell Through Me, Consumed by the Vitriol of Life, out on Redscroll Records. I’m going to presume most of you will know this band, so if you haven’t got round to this yet – do, it is Chained at their prime. For those of you who have somehow missed them, and enjoy swirling around in pools of sludge, then get here quickly – it has vocals that unfurl with antagonistic venom, moments where it drops down into almost death-doom decay, where the air feels short, tracks that (unsurprisingly given their name) recall Thou. In short, it is a record of life-sucking misery, which is exactly how sludge should be.

Transylvanian Recordings operate across the extreme spectrum, showcasing the best of Californian underground, and Demonsmoke are the latest introduction I’m indebted to them for, with their Resin Wrought album. There’s a distinct Iron Monkey rotten stench emanating from the off, the guitars reminiscent of the Nottingham kings’ self-titled and Our Problem classics, and at times you can hear a touch of Weedeater invigorating proceedings. It’s all familiar, nothing new, but hey, this is sludge and done very well too.

Lastly in this mini segment, we meet The Outlourdes in Boston and their Humanity is Killing Us All full length. This is a noxious mixture of death metal and sludge, overflowing with Hammer horror style samples, slimy rhythms, gruff low-end and high pitch screams. It’s more sludge than death, providing occasional fleeting reminders of Dystopia, but its in the contrast between the two that this works best, particularly on the title track.

Breaking free from the USA and heading across the world to Melbourne, Australia brings us to VVARP. Their latest release Power Held in Stone is an intriguing and progressively different take on doom. There are two main elements at play here, both shades of doom, but feel from different corners of the genre to create something slightly anew. The first is in the low and murky guitars that’ll clog your arteries, riffs that someone like Witchsorrow would be proud to call their own, and a general trudging doom morosity. And then there’s the vocals, ethereal, proto-doom, of the world of Royal Thunder and Solar Halos. The amalgamation makes for an exciting listen.

We featured Finland’s Lunastus’ demo on our podcast a couple of years back, and happily they have returned with a new EP entitled Silmät täynnä tuhkaa. Again there’s a wonderful woodcut style cover artwork of humans being tortured by animals, in keeping with their “vegan metal” primary tag on bandcamp, and again it’s a wonderful little release of satisfying head nodding crunchy hardcore goodness. It has that typically Scandinavian crusty blackened hardcore threat, not unlike Martyrdöd or VVORSE, and at times is so coarse as to trip over into death or black territories. It’s artery-cloggingly awesome.

And to finish, something that is (whisper it) not metal at all, in the shape of my cat wrote this song from the Philippines and their five track i would spend my nine lives with you. I recently reviewed a blackened crust EP by Nepenthe and therefore am notified of releases by their label New Misery, who it turns out aren’t a one genre roster. This is lo-fi pop – or “bedroom skramz” by the band’s own description – and I have no idea why it managed to successfully impinge on my decades long metal only diet, but here we are. Twinkling synths and gentle guitars provide a sensation of a loving embrace on a hazy evening, and whilst the vocals turn pleasingly to screams, they are muffled and somehow don’t alter the light touch mood as you’d imagine they would. I found myself pressing play again as soon as it ended – needless to say this took me completely by surprise.

Right, time to find some goregrind or something to bring myself back round.