 Greenmachine
"The Archives of Rotten Blues" CD
Diwphalanx
Records
Genres: sludge metal, doom rock, stoner metal
Feb 14 - 20 2005 |
Oh man. This is punishing stuff. Greenmachine,
known purveyors of quality Japanese sludge-metal, have released their
third album through Diwphalanx Records - and boy is it a doozy.
They get the rock on and never let up. The guitars are
unrelenting, the percussion pounds like nothing else, and the vocals
are predictably guttural. This is one of the most brutal records
in my collection, which is surprising given how fascinated I am
by this genre. "Black Summer" starts off the set in an
appropriately destructive vein. After a minute and a half of
instrumental carnage, we're introduced to the scratchy yet glutinous
vocals Greenmachine purvey. The overall experience is
pure aural bombardment; over the duration of scorchers like
"Anima" and "Hammer and Burner," it's hard not to
feel at least somewhat abused by the band. Epic "Path
Bloody Path" is what I consider to be The Archives' grand
opus; after a brief introduction of tuneful guitar plucking, the band
drops straight into mucky sludge, combining the quiet and innocent
with the absolutely explosive. Love this shit.
86%
Matt Shimmer [Vitals:
9 tracks, distributed by the
label, released 2004] |
