(Speaks Volumes Records, 2012)
Bastard of the Skies will probably need no introduction to readers
here at The Sleeping Shaman – the Blackburn sludge four-piece have been
kicking up an almighty racket for some time and their last album, Ichor, Ichor, was
very well received by Paul Robertson back in 2010 in his
tentacle-oriented review. Well, the filthy blighters are back again and
before they treat us to their next album proper they’ve thrown us a
vinyl-shaped curve-ball by doing a split release with a largely unknown
artist by the name of Catatomic.
There’s a story there; BOTS singer and guitarist Matt Richardson met
Catatomic frontman/mastermind Howie D. Voigt on a Matamp forum and the
plan to release a split vinyl on Howie’s own Speaks Volumes Records grew
from there. Attempting to find much information on Catatomic, Howie or
Speaks Volumes Records has been nigh on impossible though – for all I
could ascertain this is Catatomic’s first release and the ‘band’ is more
or less the work of Howie with a little help from a few friends. Apart
from Howie’s arrest sheet for being drunk and incapacitated (which is
included on the vinyl artwork) the only other information I can offer
about the allusive chap is that he comes from Wisconsin and likes
Matamps.
Anyway, back to business and this is Bastard of the Skies’ first
recording with new drummer Matt Aldred and bassist Claire Horrocks which
has promoted (or possibly demoted) former bass-player Rob Beesley to
second-guitar duties. In brief, this new line-up is beastly; anyone who
has had the pleasure of catching these guys live in the past few years
will be able to attest to that. But thankfully the power of their live
performances has been captured beautifully in all of its metallic,
scraping, chugging glory by Matt at his own Full Stack Studios.
“Willalee Bookatee” is the perfect two minute blast to get the BOTS side
off to an arse-kicking start but it’s the lumbering, rhythmic “The
Knuckles of Saint Bronson” that, appropriately, pummels the listener
with its Harvey Milk-jamming-with-Melvins-shaped fists. “Grays Sports
Almanac” follows in much the same vein (that is to say that it’s also a
huge bruiser of a tune) and will no doubt please Back to the Future
enthusiasts and leave the Biffs of the world knocked out with mouths
full of horse manure. On “Human Skull” proceedings slow down by at least
20 bpm, bringing us firmly into head-nodding territory. The band
pitches stoner simplicity against their penchant for awkward, unexpected
metal twists and turns and the result is kind of like listening to
Sleep transition into High on Fire – a beautiful, unnerving sound to
behold. After such an assured and brilliant four tracks the band then
decide to take a bit of a risk with a cover version…
As a massive Neil Young fan I was in two minds at the thought of a
metal cover of “Don’t Let it Bring You Down” (I guess it could never be
worse than Annie Lennox’s attempt…) but the Bastards pull it off,
sounding like Crazy Horse fronted by King Buzzo. They manage to put
their own stamp on it whilst staying true to the original, throwing in
one or two alternate notes to put a sinister spin on the otherwise
cheery middle-eight of the song. The risk clearly pays off and it’s a
great way to end their 5-track contribution to the split. Pat yourselves
on the backs lady and gentlemen.
Following on from BOTS’ tightly-wound, multi-faceted and disciplined
assault, Catatomic come across more like the eccentric Doc Brown (let’s
keep the B2TF theme running as long as possible). Firstly, there’s a
notable difference in recording techniques – the drums sound dull and
the guitars are more airy and free-roaming compared to BOTS’ more
claustrophobic sound. In the eleven-minute curio “Void”, Catatomic find
their way into an old-school doom groove and Howie sounds like a karaoke
combination of Lee Dorian and a hoarse Leonard Cohen (see “Diamonds in
the Mine”). Meandering acoustic passages weave their way through the
song and it seems that musically and lyrically Howie is still on the
same drunken bender that got him arrested. Don’t get me wrong, there is
something to be said for the sheer scope of the song and the fact that
it doesn’t implode somewhere around the eight-and-a-half minute mark is
impressive but as a whole it sounds too much like a series of unrelated
ideas stuck together with glue, semen and any other adhesive close at
hand. Second offering “I Went to You” fares worse, sadly. The bizarrely
confessional acoustic tale of woe sounds like it was largely improvised
and contains lines like: “You don’t know what love is until you grow old
and shit yourself.” It’s awkward and embarrassing because it kind of
feels like we’ve stumbled across a demo that isn’t meant for our ears
except it’s been neatly packaged and put on wax so it clearly is.
I don’t buy into judging split EPs by each band’s contribution –
splits normally come about because of some friendship, loose connection
between people or a mutual respect between the bands. Splits as a whole
tend to polarise opinion and this, I’m sure, will be no exception. At
the very least both bands have brought a lot of their own unique charm
to this curious and mostly brilliant release and, for the most part,
this ought to be encouraged. There’s no doubt that Bastard of the Skies
will continue to destroy as they have done here when their upcoming
album is released – let’s hope Catatomic take the time to work on the
structure and cohesion of their songs and ideas for a much stronger
outing next time. Great Scott!
[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 04/05/2012]
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