Art Thrash Triumph

Posted by Luke Henley in Music, Reviews

The incongruities in the music world are often what make it so fascinating to follow. The common complaint that “everything has been done before” rings increasingly less true as smaller boutique labels and bands capable of easy self-distribution harbor a broad field of forward-thinking bands and the strange outliers of countless mutated genres. This is why a thrash metal release can still excite and challenge in 2014. Oozing Wound’s new album Earth Suck is not simply a retread of sounds by a bunch of guys who never threw out their Master of Puppets tees. With the debut of its sophomore album it is clear that the band has reached a new level of confidence.

While Oozing Wound’s debut album Retrash had a driving pulse and a furious center, there were just as many ideas that felt as disposable as the plastic cups its party vibe seemed to evoke. Even simply judging from the surreal, destructive and muscular album art of Earth Suck—sans any identifying text—the suggestion is that the band is taking a more powerful stance. The results are as crushing as the several-fisted force suggested on the cover.

There is a leanness to the sound of these songs, heavily owing to the high treble frequencies throughout. While drummer Kyle Reynolds’ drums bring a palpable rumble throughout, bassist Kevin Cribbin’s playing remains in a similarly high register as Zack Weil’s buzzing guitar. This is not the often fatter heavy sound of most modern metal bands and the feeling of hearing a power-trio awash in the tinny echo of garage-like acoustics brings a weird charm to what could otherwise threaten to fall into the hammy sound of a more tribute-minded act.

With tracks like “Genuine Creeper,” however, the formula of traditional thrash tropes is subverted as the band tackled punk ferocity with a strange arrangement of interlocking dissonant leads that evoke the more esoteric shades of noise and art music. It is fitting, therefore, that this band has found a home at Thrill Jockey Records. The label is much better known for its longtime support of the avant-garde and experimental, though not as well known for its support of the metal genre. The off-kilter melodies of this track align the band more closely with similar fringe acts such as roster mates Liturgy or even the alien world shredding of Mick Barre’s defunct duo Orthrelm.

Earth Suck, out now on Thrill Jockey

There has always been a flirtation between the more indie labels and heavier sounds. The feeling of a possible misfit is part of what makes the listening experience exciting. Oozing Wound seems similarly out of place as spiritual predecessors KARP, whose signing to K Records in the 90s seemed equally loony. That label turned out to be the perfect home for KARP’s cartoonish message of outcasts invading the football fields of rural Washington. The parallels are easy to draw not only between the signings of these bands even though the events are 20 years apart. Similar to KARP, though, is Weil’s distorted shriek that even atop the lumbering pummel of album standout “Hippie Speedball” offers a frequently acidic wit and humor. Though the lyrics tackle as heady a topic as substance abuse and its relation to the drudgery of a low-wage work week, there is an absurd sidelong perspective offered with the simultaneously nightmarish and bluntly-humorous line “I can’t wake up without my hippie speedball.”

These elements all congeal to create a unified product that could easily have just been a band doing the same old routine of chugging power chords and sweeping guitar leads. This band is not content to remain in one state, however, which is their greatest asset. Not strictly metal, not strictly goofy and humorous, the same band that earlier in its career was drawing lyrical inspiration from the 2008 reboot of Rambo is now on a more bleak and cosmic plane. Raging upward to great heights no matter how entrenched in the garage they will always be.