While I don’t necessarily have a favorite shotgun (or a gun at all, let alone many, which would necessitate an entire rack), my heart goes out to ol’ Nine Toe Collins, who obviously didn’t intend on shooting his toe off, and finds his plans to record with Steve Albini similarly obliterated. It’s a bummer all around. Here’s what the band, via the PR wire, had to say about it:

Hi folks,
As most of you know, here in the Weedeater camp we pride ourselves on a long tradition of shooting our band in the proverbial foot right before we’re supposed to do something important. Whether it’s a big tour, a recording session, or whatever else we’re supposed to do, invariably we will find some way to try and thwart our grandiose plans. Well, it’s no different for this recording session, except that this time we really did shoot ourselves in the foot. In fact we regret to inform all of you that this weekend, Dixie Dave shot his big toe off whilst cleaning his favorite shotgun. Yup, that’s right. When reached for comment, Mr. Collins gave a quote that speaks for itself: ‘It wasn’t my intention to shoot off my big toe. This really fucking sucks and the pain is unbearable.’

Mr. Collins’ doctors have advised that he is to be bed-ridden for the next few weeks during his recovery. This will obviously affect the recording session (and the few surrounding shows in Jan./Feb.), which will now have to be postponed until after the March/April “nine-toe” tour. Said tour is still 100 percent on, however, so check back soon for updates on venues and exact dates. It looks like the support bands will be awesome and the band is really stoked to play this new material after touring for so many years on the same basic set. Yeah… we knew that too, sorry but we’re about to make good on it. And of course after all, we gotta keep workin’, like workin’ men do. Shooting your big toe off isn’t free, for fuck’s sake!

So to re-cap…Keko sacrificed his pinkie for Down/Melvins, Shep broke his hand for Today is the Day, and now Dixie has generously offered up his big toe for Steve Albini to nibble on. Unless overtly fond of Limburger cheese and rotten flesh, Master Steve is advised to decline. Good day. — Weedeater

Mankind is unkind, man…

Like that album, New Means to a End has its roots in an evil cousin of punk and hardcore, twisted and molded by time into something more sinister. Balboa MI play their sludge fast (for the most part) and make no apologies about it. There are tempo shifts, both sudden and telegraphed, but their intensity and their fuck-all remain in tact throughout. Before I knew it, I’d been through the EP three times. “Wounds I’ve Sewn,” “New Means to a End,” “One Condom, Zero Hour” and “Black Lung” are each about as visceral as this genre gets, guitarists Justin Collard and Ray Nelson thickly riffing out while vocalist Jarrad Collard screams like a fucking madman across the proceedings.

Both John Cates’ bass and Chris “Cleetus” Wambold’s drums are firmly present in the mix, doing a lion’s share of the work of thickening these four songs out. It’s easy, perhaps because I’ve seen the band, to imagine them all headbanging and bumping into each other as they play these songs. Even if that’s the case and it is just because I’ve seen them, it’s a testament to the engineering job done by Kevin Kitchel, who taped the band live and the vocals later, that he managed to capture that raw energy in the recording. It’s a big part of what works best with Balboa MI, and without it, New Means to a End wouldn’t succeed nearly as well as it does.

While, like a lot of sludge, there’s hardly an emphasis on musicianship in the sense of showing off technical prowess here, it is worth noting that Balboa MI function with a remarkable tightness. New Means to a End, especially for having been recorded live, shows the band as knowing innately where they are in the song. Obviously the recording isn’t flawless, I’m sure there are blunders here and there and things the band would change if given the opportunity, but although it’s sloppy and full of feedback, underneath, the, the Collards, Nelson, Cates and Wambold have a strong sense of synchronicity that carries over in these four songs. Hope to hear more from them soon.

Balboa MI on MySpace

Likewise, for me to sit here and say, “Well man, Eyehategod sure did kick ass in Brooklyn” — even though they did — would be boring as hell. It was my third Europa show in a month, packed as hell, and I was still glad to be there. That’s saying something in itself. And yeah, Eyehategod were great. Jimmy Bower rules, Brian Patton rules, Mike Williams stood on stage and accused us northerners of thinking the south is ignorant, called us motherfuckers and told us he loved us. It was a good show. I’m just not sure how much more there is to say about it than that.

I got there just before Unearthly Trance went on. It was late for a Monday, but don’t ask me for the particulars. I know I didn’t get back to the valley until 3AM, but I wasn’t really checking my watch before that, so whenever it was, it was. They played about 30 seconds of their first song before blowing their bass head and having to find a replacement. To their credit, they gave an okay showing once they got started again. Neither am I the world’s biggest Unearthly Trance fan, and seeing them play in New York at this point is hardly out of the ordinary, but I wasn’t pissed for having to watch them either.

The crowd went apeshit for Eyehategod. Last time I saw them was at C.B.G.B.’s, so that should give some indication of how long it’s been, and the same thing happened there. A pit. I can’t even remember the last show I went to that had genuine pitting, but I guess when you specialize in the kind of nihilistic sludge malevolence Eyehategod does, that kind of punk rock intensity coupled with addicted fuck-all, someone is bound to get punched in the face. It wasn’t me.

Question of the evening was, “Were you at the boat show?” referring to the Rocks off Concert Cruise the band played two days prior. “Dude, I thought the boat was gonna sink,” “Man, it was so packed” and “It was fucking sweet” were pretty much the reports I heard. No, I wasn’t there. I don’t recall what I was doing last Saturday, but it seemed like a valid excuse to not pay $40 to be crammed on the Hudson, packed in so tight I couldn’t move or see the band play. Whatever it was.

The only downer of the boat show, reportedly, was their set had gotten cut short. They made up for it in Brooklyn, playing for nearly two solid hours. It was a wonder they managed to keep their intensity up, but they did, right to the end. It was a sweaty, sludgy, drunken mess. Not a bad way to start the week, and not much else to tell. We’ll see if I can come up with anything else five years from now when they decide to come back.

Power Metal is hilarious, by the way, if you’ve never heard it.

Uncharacteristically, I only grabbed two CDs from his several laid out boxes thereof. The first was Croatan‘s Curse of the Red Queen and the second was Sonic Witchcraft, by Soulpreacher. Both were maybe five bucks, about the price I was paying for a Leinenkugel at the bar, and though the former features such good time hits as “Gravity 1, Sisyphus 0″ and “Rebel from the Waist Down,” it was the Soulpreacher record that stuck out as more of a surprise.

Maybe that’s because I knew nothing about the band and only bought the disc because, like the Croatan, it was released on Man’s Ruin, but either way, when I popped it in my car player to listen, the out and out misery of the sludge emanating from the speakers was unbelievable. I was surprised to learn in the decade since Sonic Witchcraft‘s release (and with a new lineup) the band has adopted a more European doom style, influenced by Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, but there’s no taking away from the wholly American tinge to 10-minute opener “Blues for a Blackened World” or the Southern death-boogie of “Empty and Hollow.” They’re from North Carolina, whether they like it or not.

They debuted their new sound and two new guitarists replacing Mike Avery with 2004′s Lost Words demo but eeked out another EP, When the Black Sunn Rises… the Holy Men Burn (Game Two Records) with the original lineup in 2000 and a demo in 2002 before Avery left for law school (“Your honor, I’d like this Eyehategod riff to be read into evidence”). They’ve allegedly got a new album called All the Drugs are Failing, but damned if it’s for sale on their MySpace or website. There’s a couple tracks from it on the MySpace anyway and it’s nowhere near as skin-curdling as their earlier work, so maybe it’s for the best. In the meantime, I’ve got Sonic Witchcraft drilling a hole in my eardrum and I think I’m starting to like it. Hail the fuzz of “Sunday Morning Revelation.”

Sure enough, I was right. Lynch, whose relocation to New Mexico has put the band on hiatus if not actually broken it up, took the time to reflect on some of 12 Eyes‘ glories and follies. Having seen them more than several times myself and been lucky enough to consider each member of the band a friend, I can attest that the good-time vibe to which he alludes on behalf of himself, Wood and Rega is true and was always a big part of what made a 12 Eyes show so unique. No irony, no bullshit, no posturing, just a bizarre positivity cloaked in doomed-out riffs and blood-curdling cackles. They were like Bongzilla if Bongzilla drank three cases of Red Bull and started making up songs as they went along.

Their MySpace page still in tact and their current status unknown — which is somehow fitting their laid back, see-what-happens ways — The Obelisk proudly presents this interview with one of New York‘s few quality bands. Q&A is, as always, after the jump. Enjoy.

Take me back to the beginning. What?s the story of 12 Eyes? How did everything come together?

12 Eyes was born out of the ashes of The Bone Yard, a psychobilly band put together by Ken-E Bones of Negative Reaction and Joe Wood of Borgo Pass. After being on the road with Negative and Black Cobra, Kenny asked me to be a part of it. We jammed for four or five months and never played outside of the basement, mostly because we spent more time drinking beer and shooting the shit in Ken-E‘s garage than jamming. I was playing bass at the time and JW was on the drums. We found that we played off each other very well as a rhythm section, as a peanut gallery, and as friends. After a few recklessly drunken nights where playing music and keeping our wits were pretty much an afterthought, we decided to lay The Bone Yard to rest. JW started jamming with Joe Rega (who was a long time Borgo Pass show-goer) out on Long Island, and I jammed with a few people in Manhattan. After having trouble clicking with people in the city I decided to give JW a call and see if he was into working on something a little more metal. He told me that he had been jamming with a very talented bass player, and if I was down play guitar and travel to the island to jam he thought we could make something work pretty easy. I headed out bringing a few riffs, which would later develop into ?Tear Your Fuckin’ Face Off,? and the rest is history. I got along fantastically with Joe Rega and the fellas had a few months of jamming previously to build on. I think we all knew it was going to work immediately after that jam session.

What was it like entering?the NY scene? What were your impressions of it beforehand?and how do they compare to how it turned out?

I remember a show I saw several years back now. The lineup was Rwake and Weedeater at the now defunct Siberia. It was a Wednesday night and I think the bands were hitting NYC on the road before going out to Youngstown for the Emissions from the Monolith festival. The audience was around 10 people who I would come to know as ?the regulars,? folks who read StonerRock.com show listings like it was the bible. Needless to say both bands totally ripped like hell in front of the pathetic sized audience. I always think of this show when I think of the NY scene. I mean if Dixie Dave couldn’t get more than 10 people out on a Wednesday night in NYC, a) what the fuck is wrong with this town and b) how the hell should we expect to do any better. A few years later 12 Eyes was lucky enough to share a bill with Rwake at Club Midway in front of certainly more than 10 people, but I’ll never forget that show at Siberia. Both Joe Wood and I were there and at a lot of other local and not so local metal/stoner shows around NYC. Joe Rega was a fixture in the Long Island show-going scene. We knew pretty well just what we were getting into. We’ve seen some of the best damn bands we know of play in front of no one (or no one that cared at least) and certainly didn’t expect to do any better.

We weren’t looking for glory. 12 Eyes is about the need to rock out and have a good time, the desire to hang with good people and get fucked up. Don’t get me wrong we love it when there are people at shows and they enjoy themselves, but we do this for ourselves first and foremost. For some reason we just love getting up on stage and rocking out, being goofy, and getting ripped no matter how many people are there to witness it.

One thing that I did not expect, but turned out to be a very pleasant surprise, was the amount of support we got from fellow bands that we respected and venues we frequented. Local bands we love like Maegashira, John Wilkes Booth, Negative Reaction, Scribes of Fire, The Communion, Deep in Vein, Eyes of the Sun, and Suns of Freedom, as well as out of state bands we dig like Black Pyramid, Ol’ Scratch, When the Deadbolt Breaks, and OSSM. The relationships that we developed and the brotherhood that resulted really blew my mind. Venues like the Ace of Clubs in Manhattan and Mr. Beery?s on Long Island became second homes to us. Places where we were treated like staff and never had to pay for a drink. If you are only as good as the company you keep them we must really kick ass, because all of there aforementioned bands and places really represent the best of what the NYC area has to offer in my book.

How did the 12 Eyes style develop? Over the course of your time together, how did the sound change and what do you think was responsible for those changes?

When we started out jamming together we would intentionally try to evoke some kind of stoner rock or doom vibe to the songs. I’d come to the table with a riff or two I wrote, we’d jam on them, JR would embellish it, and JW would take all the parts and arrange the tunes. I think as we played more shows it affected our sound and our style. We got more comfortable with our band identity and what we were all about as a unit, then we would just jam on whatever we felt like, whether it had a punk, thrash, doom, classic rock or any other vibe to it. JW would then arrange pieces of jams and we’d have songs. We all love to rock out and drink and have a good time on stage and I think that our “party band” attitude really shaped the sound. ?Pootie Tang,? ?Dopplegangbanger,? and ?Zeus? came out of that willingness to get goofy and rock out while songs like ?Sisyphus? and ?Go Fuck Yourself? grew from a more serious?catharsis. By the time we wrote songs like “Hipster Hate Fuck” and “Into the Doom” there really was no plan other than, “Let’s get together, get drunk, and play music.”

How much of the band?s dynamic came from jamming? One thing that always struck me about 12 Eyes was the chemistry on stage. How much of that came from personal (outside the band) friendships?

I’d say most of it came from our personal relationships. I consider the fellas in 12 Eyes to be some of my best friends. While these friendships grew out of jamming together it developed into a deep mutual respect. From the beginning all of us knew that this was something we did outside of our jobs and lives to have fun. If it wasn’t going to be fun we weren’t going to do it. I think the fact that we all kept that perspective on things helped us become close friends while shaping our group dynamic. We were never the tightest band on the block, and we prided ourselves on being dirty and loose. We’d laugh off mistakes we made on stage and joke around about them over a beer. We never got into any kind of band arguments or fights about what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it — shit I’m not even sure we had many conversations about what we wanted to do as a band other than ?let’s play shows.? 12 Eyes was the easiest most natural thing I have ever done in my life. Even now that the band is essentially over, we keep in touch and probably will for a looooong time. Those guys will probably be a part of my wedding party if I ever get married.

What was the reception like to?Mamma Loves Sabbath? Being that everyone in the band has jobs and real lives, does it even matter?

The reception seemed pretty good. We actually ended up selling out of the 500 copies we originally made of the EP. I’m sure this is because we would sell them for as little as $1, never more than $5. Sometimes, I think, people would buy them just to get us out of their faces since we often walked around shows asking each and every person there if they wanted one. A good portion of them were shipped out to Portugal, Spain, Poland, and Germany which tickled me pink. Most of the people who contacted us from overseas did it through MySpace or after reading our review in Metal Maniacs. Other people who inquired about getting copies may or may not have got them out of pure disorganization. But we were lucky enough to have favorable reviews in local and national magazines as well as websites like HellrideMusic.com. We were also listed as one of the top unsigned acts to catch by The Aquarian, a long-running local music rag. All of which I thought was pretty damned cool. Being that we all have to pay the bills, can’t tour full-time, and some of us have families and mortgages to worry about, I suppose it really doesn’t matter. It just serves to help inflate our egos a little bit. Maybe it gives our music a little bit of validity, maybe not. We had a great time making it whether people liked it or not, so who really gives a crap.

How did the band?s end come about? How was it discussed within the band, and what brought it about? What the hell is the appeal of?New Mexico, anyway?

From the time the band was incepted everyone knew that I’d be leaving NY eventually. JW even talks about moving to Austin, TX, once all the right cards turn over. I just couldn’t take NYC anymore. The rents are too high, the cost of living is astronomical, the subways are disgusting and crackheads live in the train cars. I was having issues with “working for the man,” getting tired of working hard so my boss could buy another vacation house on Block Island or pop out another puppy. The line of work I was in did no one any real good. I found an educational program here in NM to train people as Wind Energy Technicians and I thought to myself, “There is something I could be proud to work as.” That’s when the plan to escape NY was hatched.?Being in Middle America gives you a perspective on the Tri-State Area experience.?Yuppies? Hipsters? Ha!!! Sure there are rednecks, scorpions and rattlesnakes abound here, but I pay less for my three-bedroom house than I paid for one room in four-bedroom apartment in the ghetto back in NYC. As usual there was no big band discussion about it. Once the date was set for me to move we just worked around it, getting into the studio to record 80 percent of our songs which we never recorded and doing as many shows as possible. NM is great, but I sure do miss playing with those fellas.

What?s the best show you played during your time together?

Once, our buddy Matt hooked us up to play his friend’s bachelor party. I can’t really get into too many details without incriminating family members of the then to be groom, but picture Joe Wood stomping on his bass drum while 40 strippers eat each other?s pussies on top of a plastic tarp. Joe Rega picking up money off the floor to tip the hos. Classy and awesome. Opening for Rwake and Bible of the Devil was also pretty friggin’ cool, but that tarp was amazing.

What happens now?

Well we are getting ready to release a three-way split CD with Maegashira and John Wilkes Booth called The Trilateral Commission which we are very excited about. It contains songs we have been playing live for a while that never got recorded. ?Rocks Glass and a Fistful of Mammary,? ?Sisyphus,? and a crowd favorite, ?Dopplegangbanger.? After that we’re going to release The 12 Eyes Anthology which will have everything from the sold out Momma Loves Sabbath EP, Fumes from a Dead Scene, and several others songs and covers we’d recorded before I moved. I’d say right now 12 Eyes is just very ?inactive.? We plan on jamming and recording on my rare excursions back to NY. If we ever got offered a festival date or something we would very seriously consider it. Joe Wood continues to play with Borgo Pass and is filling in for Maegashira on drums. Everyone should head down to SHoD X to check both those bands out. Joe Rega is busy planning his wedding and is engaged to a fantastic woman, but I’m sure you’ll see him playing again.

What?s your favorite 12 Eyes memory? What?s the story you?ll tell the grandkids?

The Fumes from a Dead Scene CD release party I think of as a high point of my musical career. The show turned out much like any other of our shows, playing in front of friends and compatriots, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. To me it represented something way bigger than it actually was. Here was a bunch of friends coming together in the spirit of brotherhood playing a Saturday night in Manhattan (almost unheard of without a headliner) getting ripped forgetting about their shitty lives in a true testament to escapism. It was at the Ace of Clubs where they always treated us like kings and we got to share it with everyone close to us. I think that’s what I’d tell my grandkids about. That’s what made my whole 12 Eyes experience special: The brotherhood…?and alcohol.

12 Eyes on MySpace

Each of the two songs is over 10 minutes long, and Eibon gives a credible showing of diversity within the doom/sludge realm. Hedin, bassist St?phane Rivi?re and drummer Jerome Lachaud all used to be in Horrors of the Black Museum, and Balafas? past in Drowning shows through in some of his deeper growls, despite his generally keeping things in a mid-register rasp that comes off like a differently applied version of Darkest Hour?s John Henry?s indecipherability. By that I mean I don?t have a god damn clue what he?s saying, but it sounds like it?s hurting him an awful lot to say it.

As it should be, ?Staring at the Abyss? is the longer and by and large the slower of the two cuts, and shows off more of Rivi?re?s bass tone. Some ambient guitar lines offset Balafas? curdling, offering at least a moment of respite before the significant and hurtful groove picks back up and leads to a slow build and, eventually, a reverb-soaked finish. That the riffs are huge-sounding feels like it should go without saying, but there it is anyhow. I don?t know if I?d call the EP the most inspired bit of sludgery I?ve ever heard, but Eibon have a capacity for bringing a heavy darkness to their sound that makes it more ?metal? than the average. That could be enough to set them apart from the scores of atmospheric batterers out there, and it could not. They could go either way from here. For now, Eibon?s a satisfying, if brief, listen.

Eibon on MySpace

Aesthetic Death

You’ll note the part above where it says “sludge.” The thing about that is sludge is, by and large, pretty predictable when it comes to metallic subgenres. It’s usually slow, thick, underproduced and topped off with visceral screams. On that level, these Joliet, Illinois, locals don’t disappoint. That’s Why They Call it Dying… varies the pace of its attack, but the attack is still basically in line with expectation. Doesn’t take away from the immediacy of the songs or the effectiveness of the slowed-down mosh riffs of “Kidney Stoned” or “The Peasant Song,” the latter of which shows a Pantera influence not only in Robert Hughes‘ throat-stinging vocals, but also in the riffs of guitarist John Foster and the alternate time kept by drummer Dan Snodgrass. For his part, Pavey is appropriately rumbling throughout, coming to the surface to introduce a masterful Sleep riff on “The Reckoning” before diving back under the surface of the song to make room for the guitar.

Middle cut of the five included, “Endless Winter,” boasts a sub-Neurosis insistent cadence without veering into post-metal at all, and Foster‘s guitar shows off some unexpected dynamics, setting Blackbeard apart from the endless ring of sludgers content to ape Eyehategod and release two 7″s before unceremoniously attaching a “R.I.P.” to their MySpace account headline. That’s not to say That’s Why They Call it Dying… is going to launch a new wave of sludge, just that the surprisingly professional production and execution of the EP — recorded live, it should be noted — is also apparent in the songcraft. Whether that’s Pavey‘s industry experience or not I couldn’t say beyond conjecture, but wherever it comes from, it’s to Blackbeard‘s benefit.

A few killer riffs and stomping rhythms later, That’s Why They Call it Dying… comes to an irreverent finish and makes its relatively unassuming exit. I’m not sure where Blackbeard are headed or what their goals are beyond playing out and recording songs, but with this debut, they’ve unabashedly shown they have it in them to execute high-order sludge that maintains its primal intensity. A solid starting point for a new beginning.

Blackbeard on MySpace

If Hunter-Gatherer was a DIY cassingle — which, I admit, is how I’ve been thinking of it — side one would be devoted entirely to the title track, which wastes no time with flashy intros, instead starting with the main verse riff and pounding it into the ground. Sean‘s tone is not overly fuzzed, but thick nonetheless and Toddst‘s bass does much to beef up the Swamp Vulture approach. There are a few pace changes, well done, and a requisite slow, heavy-as-balls part, but “Hunter-Gatherer” mostly shows that if nothing else, these dudes have their influences in line: Sleep, Goatsnake, Melvins.

Side two comes in the form of “The Fight to Live,” a somewhat more diverse track with Toddst doing a decent Buzz Osborne shout over a slower central riff just climbed down from the Holy Mountain. Later into the track, Swamp Vulture get more aggressive, working in some screams and excellently-placed half-time cymbal work from Chris over what in a hardcore song would be the beat-the-crap-out-of-each-other part before crashing to its end. More than “Hunter-Gatherer,” which is strong in its own right, “The Fight to Live” shows the potential Swamp Vulture have to harness The Heavy in a unique way.

They’ve still got a ways to go before they get there, but with Hunter-Gatherer, they at least give the impression they’re on their way. For the $5 they want for the disc on their MySpace page or the whopping $4 Eleventh Key is asking for a download, you could do much worse.

Swamp Vulture on MySpace

Eleventh Key

That is right, sound the alarms: North Carolina‘s sludge pillagers Weedeater have been confirmed as support for a full-on North American Down tour! The lineup changes throughout the routing; The Canadian dates feature secondary support from Voivod, while the bulk of the American dates feature The Melvins. Other opening support for the tour will be Danava for the first half and Evil Army for the latter half of the dates.

Weedeater will play several shows in North Carolina and Tennessee on the way to the opening and after the closing of the tour, and will headline sporadically in chunks throughout the main tour. And of course they will do what they do best: sonically reduce every venue they enter to a resin-coated heap of rubble.

Weedeater live:

7/28/2009 Drips’ – Hickory, NC
7/29/2009 Rocket Club – Asheville NC
7/30/2009 The Muse – Nashville TN w/Zoroaster
7/31/2009 Hi Tone Cafe – Memphis TN w/Rwake, The Lewd, Royal Thunder
8/01/2009 Diamond Ballroom – Oklahoma City OK w/Down, Danava
8/03/2009 Beaumont Club – Kansas City MO w/Down, Danava
8/04/2009 The Venue at Playmaker’s – Fargo ND w/Down, Danava
8/05/2009 Burton Cummings Theatre – Winnipeg MB w/Down, Voivod, Danava
8/07/2009 Edmonton Events Centre – Edmonton MB w/Down, Voivod, Danava
8/08/2009 MacEwan Hall – Calgary AB w/Down, Voivod, Danava
8/10/2009 Commodore Ballroom – Vancouver BC w/Down, Voivod, Danava
8/11/2009 Showbox SoDo – Seattle WA w/Down, Melvins, Danava
8/12/2009 Roseland Theater – Portland OR w/Down, Melvins, Danava
8/14/2009 Grand Ballroom – San Francisco CA w/Down, Melvins, Danava
8/15/2009 The Wiltern – Los Angeles CA w/Down, Melvins, Danava
8/16/2009 House of Blues – San Diego CA w/Down, Melvins, Danava
8/18/2009 House of Blues – Anaheim CA w/Down, Melvins, Danava
8/19/2009 House of Blues – Las Vegas CA w/Down, Melvins, Danava
8/21/2009 In The Venue – Salt Lake City UT w/Down, Melvins, Danava
8/22/2009 Gothic Theatre – Denver CO w/Down, Melvins, Danava
8/24/2009 Black Sheep – Colorado Springs, CO
8/28/2009 Red 7 – Austin, TX w/Dixie Witch
8/29/2009 Rock Bottom Tattoo Bar – San Antonio, TX w/Dixie Witch
8/30/2009 Walters On Washington – Houston, TX w/Dixie Witch
9/01/2009 CW Center Stage – Atlanta GA w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/02/2009 House of Blues – Lake Bueno Vista FL w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/03/2009 Brass Mug -Tampa, FL
9/06/2009 Volume 11 Tavern – Raleigh, NC
9/07/2009 The Half Shell – Virginia Beach, VA
9/08/2009 Sonar – Baltimore MD w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/09/2009 Northern Lights – Clifton Park NY w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/11/2009 Nokia Theatre Times Square – New York NY w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/12/2009 Electric Factory – Philadelphia PA w/Down, Evil Army
9/13/2009 House of Blues – Boston MA w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/14/2009 AS220 – Providence, RI
9/15/2009 Webster Theater – Hartford CT w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/16/2009 Main Street Armory – Rochester NY w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/18/2009 Koolhaus – Toronto ON w/Down, Voivod, Evil Army
9/19/2009 Emerald Theatre – Detroit MI w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/21/2009 The Vogue Theatre – Indianapolis IN w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/22/2009 House of Blues – Cleveland OH w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/24/2009 Sokol Auditorium – Omaha NE w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/25/2009 Pop’s – Sauget IL w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/26/2009 The Pearl Room – Mokena IL w/Down, Melvins, Evil Army
9/28/2009 Jackpot – Lawrence, KS
9/29/2009 The Gypsy – Fayetteville, AR
10/02/2009 The Jinx – Savannah, GA
10/03/2009 Soapbox – Wilmington, NC w/ASG

More than a darkened atmosphere, that on At War with Decency is dirty. Dirty and tired, and the music is an exhausted collapse after some epic relationship-killing argument. Emotionally unfulfilled. Pissed the fuck off. You hear it right away with guitarist Griff‘s frantic work on “In Violation,” which opens the record and is both the fastest and shortest track at 4:34. If “sludge” hadn’t been chosen to describe this kind of music, I’d cast my vote for “grime.” It sounds like there’s a film on my speakers, like grease-covered windows.

The 20:09 of “The White Witch” is devoted to classic sludge misanthropy, misogyny and misunderstanding. “The white witch, she takes hold/She says, ‘Watch all the damage that my pussy can do/It’s like a neutron bomb.’” I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that whichever lady in his life vocalist/programmer Jesse is yelling about would be none too pleased if she saw that, but at the same time, I doubt it’s much of a concern. If someone inspires lyrics with this kind of resentment in them, by then you don’t give a fuck what they think either way.

A long instrumental section that gives way to noise, feedback (and is that an echoplex I hear?) and more noise sets the stage for the coordinating intro section of the final/title track, which for its first 11 minutes sounds like Sleep played at half speed. Drummer Corey Bing (Fistula, Ultralord, Scumchrist, etc.) sits back into the droning and rides it out with minimalist thickness from bassist Wizard (King Travolta, Ultralord, etc.) until the vocals come in with their overriding message of hopelessness and the inevitability of failure. “Never/Give up/You lose.” Some days it really feels as simple as that.

The heaviness of At War with Decency is as much emotional as it is sonic. As pummeling as the huge riff at 18:35 on the closer is, lines like “Keep on believing that you’re something when you are nobody” are just as much responsible for giving the album its venom. And it is venomous — the kind of record that sits as uneasily in the stomach as all that beer you drank alone the night before. The kind of record they play for people on suicide watch when they need room in the ward. The kind of record that earns its pencil-drawing artwork. Nasty. Sludge.

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Choking Hazard Records