Friday, November 7, 2014

Grizzlor "When you die" EP on Money Fire Records


I had forgotten that Grizzlor was also the name of a he-man character with this completely ridiculous bio:

Real Name: Gur’rull Gu’Rrooowarrrk™
With utter and total mindlessness, this brutal beast has a single mission: to defend his beloved Horde Empire against the good that is Eternia®!

Guess what? This trio from New Haven, CT sound like a brutal beast. Their total mindlessness is in the form of these primal sludgy riffs that plow ahead with the extra low end frequency range of vinyl to rattle windows and spirits. You can't reason with these things, first you make a blood pact with the higher powers that control them and then hope the end never comes.

A-Side's "No Time" introduces their serious sludge noise jam that makes me think of a slow speed Lightning Bolt, ditching the tempo for a low end rumble and cavernous groove. The vocals are distorted with a massive echo working in the lowest possible sounds, downtuning everything but with a experimental streak and tuneless guitars come in over this rigid quake. The toms keep this primal taking every opportunity for those drops between measures. Who knows how many effects have to be chained together on "Plaster Cowboy" to get this thick electronic chunky sound. The vocals open more talky, more unhinged in the background mumbling to himself. This one even sounds industrial like Pigface in it's punishing solid thud thud and screamy underwater vocal which mostly seems like sounds, no lyric, just the raw speech of a creature with no language. Barely guitars go insane with crazy dense prog because of course they are craftsmen. They happen to build a really fucked up house but they know what they're doing. Metal power riffs and muddy growl vocals that are keeping pace with this massive earthquake style instrumentation.

On B-Side's "Stoned" a cymbal shimmer fades into more slow tempo headbanging Helmet style crisp compressed distortion. Like Sleep or Earth they're getting to the core of extreme guitar based sludge, there are still depths to be mined yet. One guitar is infinitely sustained and soaring over a slow motion jackhammer rhythm, the whole thing is shaking with brown notes. "Mini Spaceship" opens on palmed chords in that noise metal sound - all rhythm, hardly a change in melody with a creepy attitude and a kidnap van. They're on the edge of a few things, they could support the experimental noise stuff to the black metal headliners because it's smart but they're essentially cleaning a trout with a butcher knife. It's messy and dangerous but it's the thing you carry with you and know how to use - which isn't normal.

Thick tiny black vinyl from Money Fire Records.

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