Firewitch play long songs. I'd put a lot of money on Firewitch being fans of Neurosis and Swans. Firewitch alternate between clean, tense plateaus and peddle-stomping, ultra-distorto crescendos. I think Firewitch are at their best when they keep their Big Muffs in their guitar cases. Firewitch have the talent and patience to create engaging, soul-altering sounds, without relying on the noisy explosions of their lazy contemporaries. Their downbeat passages had me biting my finger nails and climbing the walls. Their freak outs eventually reminded me that I forgot to take the washing off the line and now it's bloody raining! A band of this calibre could easily score a film, tear down an art gallery or blow the heads off 300 pissed cunts at a pub in Geelong. The packaging and liners are a little too much. The music of Firewitch does not need a back story or character references to give it personality. Records like this should be presented in fire-proof boxes or wedged between two saw blades. Firewitch are a good band.
Hotel Wrecking City Traders
''Somer'' reminds me of two music store employees jamming helmet songs out the back of Billy Hydes. ''Wantok'' sounds like Kyuss practicing new material while John Garcia smokes a ciggie out the front. These songs sound incomplete. They're prick- teasers. I think HWCFHGLIYFHJVGT should only record albums. What's on offer here is high-quality, but sand-bucket smoking tunes like this need more time to develop. You gotta let the Megadrive cool down before you hand the controls to someone else, y'know?... The 7'' format is to HCWT, what drinking 2 litres of Old Crow is to a pregnant woman.
Slices- ST
Slices are a top band. Slices give their songs room to breath. They don't pump their music full of useless verbal and lengthy passages. Slices play sharp-edged hardcore rock 'n roll that avoids the trappings of traditional rock. Their songs are well constructed, utilising repetition and a sparse, yet abrasive vocal overlay to create bountiful subtle hooks. Their rhythm section swims butterfly while you piss your budgie smugglers in the wading pool. The interludes seem misplaced at first, yet prove rewarding on subsequent listens. Slices play what they want and what they play is great. Now, fuck off, leave me alone and buy this record, shithead.
This is HUGE-sounding hardcore, played by some aggro men on the banks of a swamp. I like the old, fucked in the head tube amp booted through a pile used-syringes guitar sound on this recording. I reckon the guitarist of NAILS loves Uprising-era Entombed. If I ever meet him, I'll tell him I seen the lads play ''Left Hand Path'' start to finish and that I don't want to upgrade my Zinger chicken burger combo. I'd like to hear the rough mix of this album as I think the drums and vocals are too processed. At times, Nails are an ultra-stripped back, faster Pantera. That's okay by me, as I grew up in the suburbs and have always wanted ''Cemetery Gates'' to be played at my funeral. I like their anger, i I like their sound and i like where they're heading, but next time, guys, jump in the fucken swamp!
Puffy Areolas LP
''Noble Riot'' is as good an opener as you'll hear this year. ''Deathcraze'' starts off REAL annoying with that out of tune guitar, but you get used to it once the busted-radiator lead breaks pick the scabs off your legs. However, sometimes, I do wish the guy playing the Fender copy chose model trains instead of music. His guitar is mixed too loud and ''his textures'' get in the way. The title track is what Last Resort and Combat 84 would've sounded like at that first practice in 20 something years as they got ready for Holidays In the Sun. ''Get Me Out of Houston'' is like staring into a light for too long- Not high on anyone's priority list, but strangely compelling. ''Puking in Piss'' starts out like boring shit, then kicks in like Flipper with Moon the Loon behind the kit. I'd be watching this drummer if I saw these guys live, he got a lot of class. ''Heart Attack'' is an awesome upward negative progression with noisy freak-fucks that works somehow. ''Escape From Guyana'' is an ugly dirge that kills ya with cough syrup and VB, rather than Kool Aid. The singer should lock into that repetition with some vocal hooks to really drive home the misery. ''Fuck Your Pretzel'' is a hardcore riff played backwards through a bag of old hair. Try this wig on for size.
Mount Carmel LP
Off the bat, these guys have the British production values nailed. In fact, so human is the recording, I can almost smell the guys in crammed into the room tracking these songs. It smells something like an old horse with jumper leads attached to it's scrote, that's been eating millet out of an ash tray for the last few years, taking a piss that is so acidic, it's burning a hole in the carpet. This is great white man's blues that even your parents will like. Everytime I hear a contemp-rock band of this caliber, I wonder why they're not the biggest thing in guitar-driven music. I mean, in essence, the only degree of separation between Mount Carmel and say, the Black Keys is about $800,000 a year.
