I am not going to lie; this has instant replay value. It’s like a drug that pulls you back over and over again. That’s something when one of the tracks is 9 minutes long. I dare say that this is catchy Sludge, despite being on the heavier side of the spectrum. I wouldn’t say it’s the best Sludge I’ve ever heard but it is one of those that I could remember well. While most Sludge requires you to breath after one album or EP, because of the sheer enormity, this EP will get you to click play all over again. When the after effects of drugs aren’t that pretty but like all addictions but the idea of stopping isn’t that easy.
The album’s experience is similar to that thought too. You as the listener get immersed into something that feels like a person being forced into rehab, relapse and back again, but for some weird reason, you want to go back and re-immerse into that experience.
It’s like there’s a little alarm clock in your head reminding you when you need your next fix. Maybe Fistula managed to plant the idea in my head with the constant samples of a girl screaming “Drugs are more important than you” in which I assume was a reverse psychology therapy session that got reversed. The first sample in the EP encapsulates what Fistula wants to achieve. “Some metal rock groups extol the virtue of drugs and kids worship them.”
As soon as the sample kicks in, the sludgy guides the listener to the trip. The heavy bluesy chops come crashing in, with a wailing vocalist that rips his throats just enough to punch you but never starts to scratch your face with a high screech. None of the excessive distortion on the vocals like Electric Wizard; this is raw throat ripping screams that is ravaging your ear. The bass sits heavily on top, like a steamroller crushing all the materials to path a way. It does not shy away and that is how exactly thick, slow flowing Sludge should be. But slow Sludge isn’t just what the band is capable of.
At times, the track just burst into modern day Crust Punk madness when there is a need to bring out the jackhammer. At one point the band slows down to spread out the doom riffs, slowly digging into your head, like the agonizing pain of listening people confessing during rehab sessions. But then, our rehab patient just flips out, throws the tables around, flip the bird and let Hardcore Punk flow through the veins.
Then when the patient gets his mind calm down again, you know that there is still some form of anger as he mutters under his breath his resentment. That situation is exactly how the band feels as the band transition between tempos. You won’t hear high speed drumming here but the band keeps it well by transitioning between punk like drumming while keeping the pace up but willing to let the drummer just hit the snares and cymbals when the bass hits the heaviest notes.
One thing that needs to be commended is how the voice samples are used well here. While most bands that uses samples sound as if they add the samples as a last minute resort to fill up some time or even just to add random shock value to the track. The way Fistula does it is by using the samples to tell a story instead.
At one point, you have a doctor conversing with rehab patient and at another point in the same track, there is a commenter talking about the effects of drugs, combining them to a singular narrative. To add up, some of the samples are repeated at certain specific riffs, making it feel like the voice samples were meant to be pseudo choruses, emphasizing the message that samples carries. It’s like one of those taglines in a movie that gets repeated after time.
In general, this is one Sludge EP
that has replay value. The riffs are enormous and their samples were not just
thrown in at random intervals. Each sample has a purpose, like the dialogues in
a film, while the bass is the heavy orchestra, electrified, haunting you in the
background. By the end of the record, even you replay this thought in your
head; “Dr Gale, the drugs are more important you.”
PS/ Special internet points if anyone could tell me where the samples are from. I have no idea where did they come from.
PS/ Special internet points if anyone could tell me where the samples are from. I have no idea where did they come from.
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Terence A. Anthony commutes between Kuala Lumpur and Kuching. Co-Founder of Aural Chaos. He also writes for Greater Malaysia and Opinions Unleashed.