Eat Skull “Sick to Death” LP:
This next sentence, and the additional note in parenthesis, is long...U R WARNED!
Word around the water cooler is that these blokes've been roped in as late-comer harbingers of some brand new, nation sweeping r’n’r musical genre dubbed ‘shitgaze’, even if for no other reason than promoting a dirty, homemade approach to the recording process, and for boasting bill-sharin’ credentials with the likes of the Psychobilly Horseshoes, Tyvek, TV Guss etc. who were first slapped w/ the tag when it clumsily spilled over into the outer rim of the “mainstream” (it’s a term thought to have originated following reports of numerous members of the above mentioned groups’ preparing for shows w/ trance like meditative sessions in which they would stare vividly at their own recently produced excrement, so as to ail pre-performance jitters; or but from the shit what cakes their primitive recording devices). Obviously one should try as best to dismiss genre-tag’s what’re picked at by such bloated + vampiric entities, particularly when they’re as desperate, cloying and plain fucking retarded as this’n clearly is. Regardless, the winds of shit are rapidly brewing, and it’d be best for you to not let your guard down and suit up before yr up to the knees in it. Bullshit talks; them’s the cards that have been dealt, & I’m sure Eat Skull don’t mind none... And neither should you.
As for the record itself, I’m not sold on it entirely, as “Sick to Death” seems at times a frustrating exercise in what could have been. I much prefer those tracks which wrangle the ferver and intensity of American hardcore, and apply it to a dirt-shit melody (Puker Corpse, Beach Brains, Stress Crazy etc.), over the dense, swirling, oh-god-why-do-i-gotta-use-the-term “ethereal” numbers what’re rooted in fairly tedious “lo-fi indie rock” (albeit with an undeniable punk bent) and desolate / melancholic NZ bedroom pop. But hey, that’s just me (by which I mean anyone w/ balls!!). I can’t get enough of that shit; and an album worth of tense, organ laden basement HC filthy w/ hook-smarts and detritus woulda satisfied just fine. The mind is whet by the mere thought of such, I tell you what. As for the other end of the spectrum from which this wax-Frankenstein were crafted, well let’s just say I’d rather listen to the Clean or Bailter Space or the Sferic Experiment than these skulls’ attempt at an “appropriation” of their chirp, and the same goes for Columbus stable-mates Times New Viking (I personally much prefer P. Horseshit, who appear more willing to experiment and fuck with sonics’ as opposed to merely drowning their tunes in static and ‘deliberate’ production). The LP is a mixed bag’a beans fer sure- it’s charmingly inconsistent; at times sweatin’ sparks of pure punk adrenaline, while others wallowing in a warm + gooey acoustic substance… and I think I’ve given it more than enough spins to be able to discern favorites and least so much so’s. While we’re on the subject, I should make mention the fact that both “Punk Trips” and “Shredders on Fry” harbor instantly memorable melodies what’re built upon a solid, distorted frame; constituting the most immediate and intelligent of modern indie-pop. Oh, but what a dreary void that is! These tracks, as well as the aforementioned rager’s “Beach Brains + Puker Corpse” present the perfect distillation of Eat Skull’s messy and hard-to-pin-down sound, just as the title track did on their previous “Dead Families” E.P. An amalgam of various styles and approaches of past marginal/sub-cultural types been moulded into a fresh, crude and entirely new product. As for the rest; well, not so guutt I’m afraid (the last two tracks on side-B frankly blow hard). Perhaps further listens will reveal layers of the true ‘transcendental’ shit, which would of course require a serious gaze… the kind which might lure one into some grand, psyche-shit-trip, w/ Eat Skull travelling under and above poop-stained hemispheres and scooped outward into spectacular, otherworldly fecal dimensions?! E’NUFF ALREADY!
Shit talk aside (and ain’t it about time), this is definitely one of my most-listened to records of the year thus far, if not one of the best. AMAZING song titles. And yeah that artwork is fuckin’ sick…to death. Released by Siltbreeze.
Distributed here- http://www.midheaven.com/
Coming soon; Essay on the decline of Eastern Civilization (1768-1782)
Extensive study of my weeks’ numerous bowel movements.
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