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.

The Black Black on Money Fire Records

I first caught The Black Black on a split with Low Fat Getting High. The split single is a sure sign that two bands are usually connected in more ways than just being musically related. In this case when Michael from Low Fat isn't playing guitar he's designing all kinds of art for The Black Black including the sleeve of this single. The Black Black have even gone so far as to rerecord the A-Side from that split and come at it with a new polish and space.

I definitely remember A-Side's "One Blunt Death Party" and those references of Chk chk chk or Les Savy Fav are still here, clearer and more defined than ever. This new attention to the track can't hurt this one in the slightest. They've gone and emphasized this undeniable catchiness and managed to open it up even more in the verse to allow for a few more lungfulls before drowning in art punk stabby layers. That bass line takes real pleasure in this scuzzy groove, the kit is heavily separated and a single jagged note on electric just sits there sawing away at the indie dance. When the chorus hits it seems to big bang out into high pitch distortion and impossibly fast closed high hat, keeping that same energy from the original, catching you off guard and unaware, except all the individual pieces have been sharpened to a razors edge.

"You're a Danger" on the B-Side gets into Chris' hard and heavy bass with a metronome snare beat. When you can get a simple opening that compelling with two underutilized instruments, you've got something. Like Death From Above the combination can be really killer and on this one they even capture a bit of that same energy. Big delayed chorus guitars bounce around and lift this up for Jonathan to whisper this demonic sermon. Looking for a bit more the bass takes over in complete control distilling the track down to just the backbeat coming off as more jittery and art punk than the A-Side.

Michael from Low Fat Getting High designed that sleeve and it's on black vinyl from Money Fire Records.