Gilla Bruja "6 Fingered Jesus" CD
[Retribute]
This is sludgier and more straightforward than their last record. There's not as much of a grind influence, and the "industrial" aspects are kept to a bare minimum, such as a few samples or whatnot. The production is really fucked up, though. There's a lot of great texture to the distortion, but there's no low-end at all, so things have a strange wispy sheen of treble hovering above 'em. The bass is clearly there, but everything else is sort of thin, and the drums sound especially overcompressed and separated from the guitars and vocals. I like the songwriting better than on their last record, though. They still keep things mixed up a bit as far as tempos and such, so the thrashy chord progressions and wicked vocal layering in "Blood Ties to Whisky" are fucking killer. In general the vocals are searing high screams, but there are some lower growls and some burly singing passages here too. The no fucking around plodding destruction of "Brass Eye" is definitely the standout of the disc, in my opinion. It's a bit groovy, but in a good way... it's just fucking right in your face. The punishing doom atmospheres and perfectly integrated electronic textures of "A Season to Whither" are also fucking great, as is the completely sick range of vocal delivery. Not unlike their last record the layout is a complete atrocity. Someone get this band a new logo and some aesthetic sensibilities. The fonts are crap, the colors and Photoshop effects are crap, the computer-generated imagery is crap... it just looks ridiculous and unprofessional. Were it not professionally printed it would scream self-released demo or something of that nature. According to the booklet, "all lyrics change at will depending on deepness of mania", and that makes sense considering that the lyrics are incredibly strange, appearing here with no punctuation or separation at all. "...it gushes like asbestos smoke I push and clam but I can't force it back in it drifts through my fingers and I got asked by my angel if it was end time I said this time peels skin for broken knee caps shattered knees cut your throat and walk to me..." Very bizarre. Not bad. I could see myself really getting into this band if they could nail a production sound that would do their work justice. A visual aesthetic that was in keeping with the twisted nature of their music and lyrics would also be nice, but I'd settle for a punishingly heavy recording with an even mix. (6/10)
Running time - 34:27, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Blood Ties to Whisky, Brass Eye, A Season to Whither]
Retribute Records - http://www.retributerecords.com

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