Sulaco "s/t" CD
[Relapse]
This is another band I had been wanting to hear for a long time despite having absolutely zero idea what they might sound like. Right off the bat I'll say that the guitar riffs and time signatures are totally fucked up and off the wall, and I really enjoy that. There are just tons and tons of time and tempo changes with heavy breaks and pinch harmonics reminiscent of death metal (in a Gorguts "Obscura" sort of way) and then tons of really long, winding riffs that just creep around all over the place with some of the most fucked up note combinations I've ever heard. The vocals are just wicked screams that definitely sound damaging to the throat - and the end result is pretty damn impossible to pin down with any genre tags, and I think that's fucking cool. The recording holds the material down a little, as the rigid triggered drum sounds are really annoying and the mix is too muddy to do the songs justice in my opinion. The bass performance is fucking slick, but it's unfortunately hard to decipher all of the bass parts. I'd like to hear a warmer sheen to the percussion, a well-defined bass presence that works very closely with the guitars as far as levels, and that should do it. The guitars are just right as far as texture and clarity, and the vocals feel right to me too. The rest? Honestly? I think the layout is crap. It's just ugly. The yellow-ish colors are ugly, the 2000 Flushes blue colors and textures are boring, and it just looks plain. It's highly consistent, I'll give it that, and the text is compact and easy to read... but visually it does nothing for me. The brief sets of lyrics have an uncontrolled sort of flow going on, which suits the odd content rather well: "Follow the cloud of sweet love hop on and take a ride an all day getaway this is never too much crystals gleaming in the sun of a bag of shit and three balls of fast orange with some brew should be cool where will I go I really don't know two for one down the road flowers plenty of fun to go around don't pick a bean how did it get to this." The only "bad" thing I have to say about this is that the general "meat and potatoes" of all four of these songs sounds very, very similar. Individual passages separate the songs from one another more than anything else, and the general approach to the writing is almost too unwavering. The musicianship is incredible across the board, and they've nailed an incredibly original style, now I just can't wait to see where they take it... (7/10)
Running time - 14:39, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: all four are very solid compositions]
Relapse Records - http://www.relapse.com

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