Thursday, March 22, 2018

TWINGIANT - Mass Driver Reissue review




TWINGIANT - Mass Driver Reissue

Sludgelord Records




There are a variety of reasons for a label to reissue a band's previous work. The most obvious is it being a rare sought after item of musical importance. The second reason is trying to cash in on a band's modern popularity. The third is devotion and I believe that's where Sludgelord Records comes in with this one.


TWINGIANT hail from Phoenix, Arizona and they basically play a brand of Southern sludge/stoner rock in a vein that I think sounds like combining MASTODON with ALABAMA THUNDER PUSSY as well as a few other traditional Southern sludge acts. The vocals are more of the death doom metal monster variety. It's a cool pairing. So last year TWINGIANT put out a full length Blood Fued on Argonauta Records (a cool label by the way). The release is damm good. You've got those barked vocals combined with the typical sludge mud fest but with some sweet hypnotic grooves.


But even with that said it's still a connisuer of the genre release. It's like Nepalese black metal. Who really cares how good it is as long as it sits in the grass of the radar screen. Well diehards for the most part will be into it. Which brings us to this, TWINGIANT's debut full length which was self released and originally came out in 2012. Sludgelord Records, bonifide devotees to the genre and giving the worthy their due, have reissued it. Like I said earlier it's devotion, a rare quantity in extreme metal these days.

Even though there's five years separating Mass Driver from Blood Fued (along with an EP, a full length and a split) the needle hasn't moved too far from the starting point. Hey look if something works don't fuck with it, just improve a bit on it. On here the band had more touches of ambiance. There's a slight variety in the vocals. And there's definitely more MASTODON influence. But it's still a damm good sounding release but then the good people at Sludgelord Records already knew that.


As I'm writing this, WEEDEATER is playing forty minutes away from here. I had to work tonight but even so my friends were begging me to go. We've got an extra ticket Wolf, come on! Ya know what, I've seen WEEDEATER a half dozen times. But if this band rolled into town, hey I'd be there. Nuff Said.

http://thesludgelord.blogspot.com/

https://twingiant.bandcamp.com/album/mass-driver

https://www.facebook.com/twingiant/


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