Cruevo / Brainoil
Split CD
Shifty / Boredom Noise / Berzerker / Unknown Controller
I’ve got a sore throat. Whenever I blow my nose, the colors are black and/or red, and my head feels like its suspended in a bowl of honey. There’s vomit on the landing of this building, and as I walk to my flat, the trash bags are stacked up to eye level. Man, this Cruevo/Brainoil split is the perfect audio companion to the urban defecation all around me.
Eschewing the pastoral reveries of many of their stoner/doom brethren, these two bands deal in a deeper, crustier urban grime that settles in your lungs and blinds your eyes. Concrete sprawl is reflected by the eighty-ton bass, clanging drums and corrugated metal guitar, but then railed desperately against by the broken glass-mouthed vocalists. Cruevo weigh in with three total fucking prog-sludge nightmare songs, crammed full of discordant sluglike riffs, and oblique alienated lyrics that stand pretty well on their own. Of course, the music adds a good deal more necessary force. It’s exciting music, at that, radiating shades of industrial gray, coming across like Joy Division crossed with Grief and Phobia.
Brainoil are a little more direct in their song structures, a little more Obsessed-y and Sabbath-y, which is not a bad thing, especially since they contribute a whopping eight tracks to the record. Greg Gandalf’s vocals and fuzzfuck bass really stand out for me, seems like his voice is gonna go out any minute now. Though it doesn’t. Love that razor’s edge before total system failure. Brainoil “do” good fucking solid doom played in the rockier vein of Cathedral circa Soul Sacrifice, but with even more urgency of mission. Good doom metal is one of life’s purest pleasures – just soak in the misery.
Boredom Noise: http://www.boredomnoise.com • Berzerker Records: http://www.berzerkerrecords.com • Shifty Records: http://www.shiftyrecords.com
