EL THULE
Green Magic
(Heavy Birth)

HALF MAKESHIFT
Omen
(Profound Lore)

MOSS
Sub Templum
(Rise Above)

DETRITUS
Fractured
(Ad Noiseam)

FROGSKIN / TAUNT
Split
(Streaks)

DEADBIRD
Twilight Ritual

(At a Loss)

THE ROTTED
Get Dead Or Die Trying 

(Metal Blade)

MORE REVIEWS

Fans of sludge must be getting fat by the minute. These days there is so much music to feed them in a frenzy. I am not exaggerating when I say that in the blink of an eye a new sludge/stoner album has hit the web, gone by, gotten old and perhaps been relegated to the crusty and stinking anus of underground rock. One release that doesn’t deserve that destiny is the brand new effort by Arkansas’ sons of the mud Deadbird, who already have a full length on their backs titled The Head and the Heart, which was issued by Earache’s subsidary Codbreaker Records back in 2005. Which makes them old men to the scene. I actually learned about them through that release as one blessed Saturday I stumbled upon it on the cutout bin of my favorite record store. I paid $0.99 for it. My first thought after the first spin was, who was the fool who gave it away?

And my first reaction after hearing this sophomore effort is, mmmmhhh, that it is less acerbic, slightly less intense and surprise surprise, that it includes clean vocals. Thankfully, not throughout the whole album. Instead, vocalist Chuck Schaaf peppers the songs with his human voice about 20% of the time and leaves the other 80% totally unclean and brutal Hulk-ified.  This is the thing though, and I say this as a lover of all things doom/stoner/sludge; where is Deadbird’s edge? If you tell me that they do not need one, I’ll argue that you should take a listen to all the one hundred above average bands peddling this style at this very same moment. The camp is about to get saturated and only the string will survive.

That’s not to say that Deadbird hold no hope. Because like the best and most intense Southern bands Deadbird doesn’t disappoint and unleashes waves of guitars after more waves of guitars. Open riffs are dropped with much intensity, calculated drumming is delivered in ass-sure fashion and a good time is had by all. A couple of bluesy licks sip through the recording, like during a few moments in “Rule Discordia”, but it’s clearly where these fuckers belong. In the doom/sludge/stoner bin. Not the cutout bin though.  

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