Asthma Atttaq opens this split with five tracks of really odd material consisting largely of frantic indie kinds of playing, occasionally latching onto a plodding sludge type of chord progression or chaotic riffs with scathing vocal screams, including some passages of sparse percussion and chaotic electronic guitar noises. The band's just a duo (one guy on drums/vocals and one on guitar/vocals) which explains a portion of their stripped down approach, and once things get going it's kind of got a weird screamo thing happening sometimes, but stylistically it's pretty jarring and inconsistent. I don't really like it, but that has more to do with the songwriting and overall playing style than anything - I don't mind the unusual diversity or the fact that it can sound a little thin with just drums, guitar, and vocals. Actually, the recording isn't bad. It sounds pretty crisp and the low-end of the percussion rounds out nicely against some of the more acerbic guitar work. "I Don't Care if She's Miss Hairless America, I'm Spoken For" lets up on the distortion and hints at more melody, blending that with lots of dense effects for the distorted runs - but the irritating vocal screams kind of kill it for me. I don't know, the song titles and quirkiness definitely point to a sense of humor here, and I'm rarely very appreciative of that for whatever reason. The lyrics, when rarely present that is, aren't really in that vein though: "You're getting older and colder days after weeks after months after years and these tears fall less and less and less..." I don't know, I'm really not into this. The playing is pretty tight and they're basically unique, but it seems like something geared more towards arty types and I don't usually get into most of that musical niche. Dirty South Apocalypse takes side B with a similarly acerbic attack both musically and vocally, though their style is darker and far more consistent, and therefore much more effective. It's basically noisy sort of hardcore/punk with screamo leanings and nice uses of melodic undercurrents and metallic influences to add more variety. "Teeth Through the Beams" slows down at times and gets much heavier, even using lower vocal growls which I enjoy more than the screaming; while "The Grand Finale Part" is a well written song that flows more linearly and efficiently than some of the others, making better use of melody to maintain a consistently sinister vibe - complete with a few uses of clean guitars layered in against the other instrumentation. "Kindly Sewn Eyes" closes the record and has some of the most metallic playing, with slower lead lines and midpaced rhythms that have a little more chunkiness, and that's also a cool element that some of the earlier tracks lack to this degree of prominence. Their recording is fine, balancing everything nicely and maintaining a dirty edge that doesn't detract from the material. The vocals are more aggressive than some of the guitar tones and therefore lean out front, but the rhythm section definitely helps hold things in place. Lyrically the material is pretty dark, carrying a certain socio-political edge but never getting direct at all, which I enjoy: "The sun set this morning, Who was clapping who was mourning, Short long haul; enjoy them, How can we gain at this cost shouldn't be the question I ask myself..." The LP is nicely packaged between two one-sided covers (one per band) printed in light blue ink on matte blue stock that's a darker shade. Inside is a xeroxed insert with additional artwork and lyrics for each act. Dirty South Apocalypse has a stronger visual aesthetic across the board, not to mention better lyrics, but Asthma Atttaq's cover does look good. The end result is a nice looking D.I.Y. release with one decent band and one band that does nothing for me. I'd give Dirty South Apocalypse a 6/10 on their own, but Asthma Atttaq holds back the overall quality of this one.
[Forever Escaping Boredom]
Running time - 35:00 (approximately), Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: The Grand Finale Part, Kindly Sewn Eyes]
Forever Escaping Boredom - http://www.foreverescapingboredom.com
