One should not be confused by the fact that this group (from The Netherlands, and featuring 75% of the former members of the hardcore band Insult) carries with it an acronym for a band name like Hot n' Steamy Monkeylove. No, that's not a bad sign at all. On the contrary, it's representative of the fact that this band fucking rocks! They've got a bitter sense of humor as expressed through both the band name and song titles such as "The Good, The Stabbed and the Strangled" or "The Black Legacy of Failure and Bad Luck" (among others), and their brand of gritty, in your face rock 'n' roll hits the mark dead on without fail. I'm talking short songs of two to four minutes each, shitloads of sludgy midpaced riffs alongside more energetic chord progressions that carry a punk rock drive, a bit of a death 'n' roll crunch to the massive recording and gruff vocal attack (which ranges from sick snarls to hoarse growls), etc. The entire record marks a perfect blend of Sweden's pioneering death 'n' roll grit with the UK's rightfully legendary (not to mention acerbic and unhinged) stoner/doom approach that fans of each particular niche should absolutely adore. "Sour Fruits" is a two-minute rager that lets a little Mot?rhead shine through (And who could complain about that?), "Show Buzz" opens slower and even brings along some melodic lead lines, and the brief "Lamb of God, Sheep Mentality" is more straightforward and to the point in its quick array of tempo changes and stylistic subtleties. "Monuments to Mankind's Mistakes" flirts with some of the most obvious hardcore/punk influences, also letting the vocals strip down to a speaking delivery for added effect on occasion; with "Drugs, Sex, Money and Murder" bringing in some unexpectedly faster metallic runs right beside some total Sabbath worship. "Dead Wonderland" is another that lets the vocals lighten up on rare occasion, but it also uses some phased clean guitars that are a lot different than anything else herein, so the band could well start experimenting more in the future. Admittedly there are a lot of similarities from song to song, as in this case the band's diversity tends to be of the global variety, so they kind of toss everything into each track rather than exploring different angles in different songs, but the disc is so short and the writing and recording so effective that I'm not really bothered by that fact at all. A couple of the songs open with samples, but they pull that off without a hitch too since each one fits the content of the music and carries with it a sarcastic sense of humor that matches the band's attitude completely. Speaking of the recording, the guitar tone is heavy as shit but has a lot of that grimy texture to it that's so important for these styles, the bass is massive and thickens up the mix while at the same time maintaining its own faint definition from the guitar rhythms, the percussion is warm and natural and bashes away in the background, and like the guitar work the vocals are nicely textured and rest deep in with the music. It seriously sounds about as good as this style ever sounds. The packaging leaves a little to be desired since there's very little information included, but they self-released this edition as opposed to the LP, so that's cool. The disc comes in a slipcase with the titles on the back, and that's it. No lyrics, no lineup, nothing. The artwork is pretty damn cool though, and it fits their approach well. And despite the humor involved, I get the impression that the lyrics are actually serious and carry a message, so there's probably some interesting material there. I very much recommend this band for fans of the aforementioned genres. I'm pretty impressed by how solid this is considering I've never heard even a mention of these guys before, but hopefully that'll change in the future. There's room for improvement, but they're already hitting hard, so I'll look forward to seeing where they take it from here. Good work.
[self-released]
Running time - 28:56, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: The Good, The Stabbed and the Strangled, Lamb of God, Sheep Mentality, Monuments to Mankind's Mistakes]
HSML - http://www.hsml.tk
