Slush - American Demons (2016)
American Demons is the latest and longest release from the NYC band of Slush, who've been kicking around for a few years now, and are now bringing eight tracks of fuzzy, sludgy, punky, doomy rock (plus a shot of blues every now and then) into action with a rough but stylish form. Keeping things generally quick and concise, but letting riffs and tunes have the room needed to grow, the band uses thick-fuzzed bass, flexible percussion, and gnarly guitar to build multi-hooked runs and lines of memorable sway-inducing grooves.
While there's a trust-bringing crustiness to the music, pulling yourself away from the impulse to just slow-bang your head along and focusing on the playing will give a sense of hard refinement put into getting all the pieces to come together just right. Even when blearily shredding along, or bringing out a swampy growl of mad bass (both of which come into excellent use in "Iron Mountain", which you can find below), the band keeps a... well, polished isn't the right word for it, so let's call it well-worn, as though they've played through everything enough to be able to bend it and twist it around without losing the essence. While I can't call myself a big fan of NYC, the music of this album does have me regretting that I can't catch Slush doing their thing live. Check it out on their BandCamp, and when you find yourself trying to hum out whichever track ended up lodged in your brain, go ahead and buy a copy to help show they're doing things right (you can even snag a mercury silver cassette version, with art for each song, if that's your thing). Strong stuff with a good sense of humor and powerful chops.
~ Gabriel
While there's a trust-bringing crustiness to the music, pulling yourself away from the impulse to just slow-bang your head along and focusing on the playing will give a sense of hard refinement put into getting all the pieces to come together just right. Even when blearily shredding along, or bringing out a swampy growl of mad bass (both of which come into excellent use in "Iron Mountain", which you can find below), the band keeps a... well, polished isn't the right word for it, so let's call it well-worn, as though they've played through everything enough to be able to bend it and twist it around without losing the essence. While I can't call myself a big fan of NYC, the music of this album does have me regretting that I can't catch Slush doing their thing live. Check it out on their BandCamp, and when you find yourself trying to hum out whichever track ended up lodged in your brain, go ahead and buy a copy to help show they're doing things right (you can even snag a mercury silver cassette version, with art for each song, if that's your thing). Strong stuff with a good sense of humor and powerful chops.
~ Gabriel
For Fans Of; Black Pyramid, The Heavy Co., Merlin, Satan's Satyrs, Special People
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