Grovel – “Trash Poetry”
First, I confused them with the great, female riot grrl band- Gravel, from Salem, MA.
Secondly, I realized that their name is one of my favorite things to do before my Goddess.
And thirdly, I found out that they were formerly known as Hooch, a band I reviewed live once along with their previous recording, as well.
I recall them being a pretty cool, doom-y, sludge metal band who put a bit of energy to their songs at times, especially in live shows.
Looking back at my music review of them, there’s much mention of me almost killing a hedgehog with my car. Which I don’t remember now, but I’m sure it was their inspiration to donate all proceeds from this album to local animal rescue in Boston.
Which I think it a great cause, indeed.
Let’s avoid all possible road kill but move our ears toward a more dangerous intersection of possible, annihilating, sensory destruction and listen to their latest release:
“Warm” starts with a welcoming feedback noise just before an avalanche of sound tumbles down upon our skulls, crashing into our eardrums, like a mountain exploding inside our heads. The vibe is dark and intense, the beat heavy and monolithic and the vocals emit a steady, stream of anger, bile and passion. The song speeds up again, but then slows down once more, moving forward with its’ formidable presence. This song is powerful, serious and intense and is awesomely heavy- and is very, very good.
After a spoken word sound bite with a women who calmly state she’s been attacked by zombies and “just about anything that could happen,” “Last To Die,” ambles in on a nice, swinging beat with a great, Sabbath like minor riff. The rhythm and music moves onto a doom- beat and sound, just before the vocals commence bleating to relay its’ emotional, anguished release. I think this song takes the best elements of Sabbath and mixes them with modern day influences like doom and sludge. Awesome, foreboding and swinging immensely at times- I deem this to be another great song.
“Panzram” arrives like an immovable object treading through a previously, indestructible fortress that is just giving way. The beat plods intensely, holding back all onward movement as vocals scream and guitars shoot out doom-y, dissonant notes. Halfway through, all hell breaks loose where we’re thrust into a hardcore/grind release with a fast tempo and trilling, grind guitar. Only to bring the song back to a terrific, doom-y staggered finish.
“Die Pissed,” starts with a jazzy, walking bass line with the ferocious, barking vocals spitting out their spite as the guitar leads off with another excellent, minor key line which transforms into a neat, groovin’, repetitive riff. There’s a breakdown in the middle bringing the song into a more intense, more doom-y rhythm that creates a great tension. Only to swing once again to a perfect finish of a near perfect song.
Another spoken word sample, about the true evils of marijuana. (Be more aware of the true evils of society to profit on drug addiction instead of helping the afflicted.) “Frozen Ghost” begins with guitars once more emitting feedback while the rhythm moves along in an elegant, industrial, dark parade. But then the beat moves up a notch for a few measures, before the rhythm reverts to the doom just as the vocals enter with their tortured, expressive emoting. This song envelopes industrial, sludge, doom and metal in one perfect collage of sound and emotion. A circling, riff moves along in a powerful rhythm to bring an end to another awesome song.
When it comes to metal I enjoy both extremes of the spectrum, being a big fan of the thrash and the doom, also. And when a band reminds me of Black Sabbath- hey! That’s a big plus as well. The band that created heavy metal with it’s doom-y music, doom-y beats and put the word “heavy” rightly so as an adjective of its genre.
And Grovel needs not to kneel before any band when it comes to intense, powerful music- full of deep emotion, dark expression with excellent, potent performance.
I, of course, have to kneel before my Goddess.
This band has fairly long songs but, surprisingly, no solos at all.
Because they work well as a unit to create something great- which is music that is intense, but sometimes swinging, emotional but somber, – powerful but also reflective-
That is really, really good- really, really great.
Hey, that sounds pretty great to me.
And they do.
(Slimedog)
