Gerard Cosloy’s sickeningly excellent 12XU record label, based out of soon to be overrun by cool kids-ville, USA – Austin, TX – are backing a demon behemoth. A duo of would be sludge lords, out of Austin themselves, are lurking (probably somewhere near that Austin bat cave/cavern/bridge?). The record’s title will give you some idea of the bad things they have been up to, and the bad places that they have been up to them in. I don’t actually know a damn thing about Dustin Pilkington (programming, vocals, guitar) or Anthony Davis (programming, drums). Though I do assume that Davis is not the lately famous basketball player playing in New Orleans (and I do know that Pilkington was in CRUDDY and TOTAL ABUSE). No, I don’t know these guys outside of the sounds, the brutal and bludgeoning sounds, that they have committed to a recording device of some kind for their first full length record SEWER BIRTH. So maybe they are not doing nasty things in dank places. Maybe. Their music tells me a different story though.
A way groovy THE BODY? Failing at bands to liken this to though really. MELVINS and NIRVANAs come to mind also I guess. Noise rock this is, but the vocals are blackened to an unholy splotch that rests upon the rarified industrial sludge factory that constitutes rhythm section and riff manufacture. Boston heads, are you a BUGS AND RATS fan?? Well, here you go. RASPBERRY BULBS fans, yeah you want to hear this now. The only knock that can really be leveled against BURNT SKULL is that they keep their ratty head banging monsters so devoid of length. I’ve never been able to disagree with a killer band who wants to play the “keep em’ wanting more” game though. Always better than overstaying the welcome.
This is some fucking fantastic HEAVY music. Best I’ve heard in some time. “Infinite Flesh” is pummeling. Oh my god people must mosh to this so hard. That mid-tempo stomping beat. A main riff so heavy in a way that I thought was perhaps impossible to achieve in this day. So heavy that I have my suspicions that they must have been digging a very deep hole somewhere, and in that hole they accidentally stumbled upon the THING. The riff. And this is the source of their power. That’s a deep hole riff man. “Infinite Flesh” wow. The most banging power sludge tune I may have ever heard. Maybe it’s just the freshness of all of this talking, but those chord changes on the verse and bridge? You never hear that kind of move in music this starkly, and heavily EVIL. “No Cross” is a minute and a half of heavy punk bliss. Raging! Here sounding like a heavier and less recorded from inside a toilet CRAZY SPIRIT, I only wish this song was longer. More killer riffs.
Throughout the record you’ll also detect many nebulous sounds filling out these heavy proceedings, and with both members of the band credited with “programming”, that’s what these phantom sounds must be. You can’t really hear the electronic curtain behind this thing, but you can feel it. I’m going to need you guys to come up to Boston and get together with some of our local heavies if you don’t mind. On my wish list for Hassle Fest 6. May dreams come true. Pure unholy smash you in the face terror rock. Early 2014 fav for sure.
