Sunday, March 10, 2013

senior fellows - ecclesiastical servitude (2013)




heres a brand new album, i was contacted by one of the dudes in this band by email, he sent me a link, and whoa, this is some good shit......its a heemeyer sideproject of sorts. huge, heavy downtuned sludge-core with  rough vocals that kinda remind me of dwid from integrity at points (which is kinda strange, cause he sings for heemeyer too and at no point would i have made that comparison for them....maybe it has to do with his vocals being buried in the noise on the heemeyer record)....lyrically it seems to be on an anti christian slant, attacking conservatism and religiously derived value systems.....thats all well and good and im digging that their politically inclined (at least thats my impression) and care about more than just being another sludge band with "dark" lyrics like so much other assembly-line doom/sludge" bands......its pretty well produced too.......that can be a good or bad thing, here, luckily, its good.....everything is clear and  intense and everything fits together perfectly. the riffs are solid, as is the drumming and the vocals can be clearly heard, which was the one tiny gripe i had with the heemeyer album, that the vocals there were  submerged under everything else.....anyways this is really fucking good and you really should buy it when it comes out in physical form, for now  the digital will have to tide you over. enjoy!






Tuesday, March 5, 2013

whitewalker - windowtalk ep (2013)




this is the first record released in 2013 im reviewing and its a jammer.........whitewalker are a new michigan band formed from the ashes of cougar problems (though that band is still semi-kicking according to the members) but where cougar problems did  bass-driven "powerviolence" on the slightly arty tip, whitewalker goes in a slightly different direction, delving into the depths of noise-slathered static core.....this shit is incredibly raw, sounding like it was recorded in a 100 ft sinkhole just above the upper levels of hell......the songs themselves are forever driving forward on some simple yet brutal riffing but are surrounded by and encased in noise.........the harsh vocals are somewhat audible, but most of the time buried in the noise, the drumming is good and propels the songs forward  with blastbeats here, a fill there.....only three songs here but their all worth it if you like the kind of extremely raw hardcore thats been coming out lately in certain circles......check it out!