I'm super bummed that I apparently didn't make it to this in time for copies to still be out there direct from the label, but this is a really great sludgy stoner split single from both of these bands I haven't come across before from a completely new label north of the border in Saskatoon. Shooting Guns are locals who started back in 2008 and from the sounds of their side are distilling a Sabbathy metal and post rock doom into their own special brand of thunder, while The Cult of Dom Keller out of Nottingham, UK are taking a psych bludgeon to their heavy mess. This was one of those singles that felt like a real discovery, out of nowhere of bands heavily in their own niche and then coming together on this tiny record. A label like Leaning Tree, putting these two together is someone to keep an eye on, and I'm just sorry it took me so long.
The A-Side from Shooting Guns, "Down and out in Detroit" is a thick sludge of electric in weird minor keys, setting the tone of technical craft and Earth like low end. The drums and a wall of bass are waiting in the wings to lay a solid foundation underneath the crackling electric which now in hindsight seems fragile and thin, against this huge rhythm section. The track keeps pushing along in a kind of see-saw sway of kick and bass drum, between a thick, southern metal and the deep woods of Norway. Guitars work into a piercing hum, one EQ'd heavy on the low end while the other takes the opportunity for a solo in human vocal frequencies, the wind whipping at the it's back. This is long hair music with one foot in some kind of medieval mythology and the other in a leather spiked jacket looking down at the city on fire. An instrumental at this pace barely has a chance to get enough speed down the runway but somehow takes off, blackened pieces falling away behind it, sparks dropping off over the water.
The B-side from Cult of Dom Keller" right away feels like they're coming from a bit of a lighter side of things, as if the JAMC were brought up layering dense fuzz in a firebreathing side show. Huge echo distortions swirling around, a kind of shallow echo depth of The Mummies, almost garage but just really foreign sounding rock. Shoegaze, heavy on the Deadbolt spring reverb,a surf sound with menace, but the vocal of something like Disappears. A huge sense of distance, the chorus going in a '90s english Lush direction but keeps climbing, adding a piercing wah in a real droney psych that's impossible to pick apart. Focused on the melody, I'm into this buried vocal style and by the end this is taking off... a massive, but paper thin, tortured kind of sound.
I want to hear it all again.
Take a listen below and be on the lookout to see if this is still in stock anywhere or they must be touring with copies...hot commodity.
Teargas recordings have a different single from Shooting Guns....or possibly a few copies of this one could pop up over there....it's a great one.
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