Monday, April 25, 2011

Brainwashed Review: Sun Splitter/Bridesmaid split

Brainwashed had some nice words to say about the new split 7" with Bridesmaid.

Link Here.

"After recently loving the Sun Splitter cassette on Land of Decay, I had high hopes going into this split and they most certainly came through. Their half here stands up proudly with that tape, which is no easy feat, and the Bridesmaid side is no slouch either.

Bridesmaid, who I was not really familiar with are definitely sailing similar waters to Sun Splitter, but still put their own unique spin on things. "Vilkin' It For All It's Worth" is a fully instrumental piece that initially conjures up images of smoke and bong water, with its overdriven bass and garage band drums that are just the right amount of messy. It’s an unrelenting headbanging delight until the final 30 seconds or so, where it just goes full bore into grindcore assault, shattering the comfortable repetition that preceded it violently.

On the other side, "Plum Blossom" by Sun Splitter is cut from the same cloth as their tape. Opening with a robotic cymbal passage into their wonderfully diverse Sabbath riffs, the track is pure noisy bliss. While the song doesn’t quite transform into as many odd configurations as some of their other songs, it does carefully balance a repeated vocal mantra with big, caveman riffs and more complex guitar notes, dissolving into screams and noise in the middle segment. Subtlety is tossed out the window at the end, when the drum machine is programmed for "machine gun" and the guitar is pure death metal.

Paired together, they both highlight different aspects of the sludgy, post-doom metal scene. The contrast between Bridesmaid's ramshackle drums and Sun Splitter's digital precision is especially noticeable since both are matched with heavy, fuzzed out bass guitars, but neither is better than the other, they're just different: different, but equally badass."

Show report, 4.24 @ the Bottle


Thanks to everyone who made it out last night! We knew there were plenty of you heathens that wouldn't let a measly resurrection stop you.

Oyarsa kicked off the night, with a brutal minimalist slant on blackened doom. Northless from Milwaukee pummeled the bottle and sounded better than ever on the nice P.A. system. We went on last, and managed to make our way through a new track without a hitch. Excellent night all around, and as always thanks to the Empty Bottle for having us.

Next up: Thursday, May 5th @ the Impala Gallery in Rogers Park w/ Mind over Mirrors and Steven Hess/Mike Weiss