Spawned out of a cocktail of frustration and disillusionment with the music industry, BOSS HM-2 pedals and a mixture of grindcore, southern USA styled Sludge and death metal, London based five piece Lunatic Hooker are certainly an interesting mix, just like their influences and what makes them really. With a demo and single floating about on the interwebs, Black Bow records have decided to give this bunch a shot and with any luck, help people embrace the filth these maniacs are slinging out there.
For guitarists who know their tones, there is no mistaking that animalistic bite in the distortion. The highly sought after and iconic BOSS HM-2 pedal, made famous by the likes of Entombed and At The Gates provides the backbone of the filthy sound whilst the thundering bass and relentlessly blasting drums give it the structural support required to really drive home the intensity!
From the off, this filthy wall of noise, reminiscent of Brummie crust merchants Fukpig hits like a freight train and drags you along with it. The switch ups between the murky sludge like sections and full on grindcore keeps you on guard, and that is just the first track “My God Is Bigger Than Yours”!
“Beard Feared” has some real raw and malicious sounding vocal deliveries along with colossal sized walls of noise coming from the band whilst “Unearthed Dead Children” is a high paced, adrenaline fuelled slice of grind… On a different note, the title makes me chuckle, not entirely sure why, but *shrugs*. Titular track “Embracing The Filth” is a well rounded mix of death-meets-sludge, bringing slight shades of Goatwhore with it whilst “Blood Eagle” goes Nordic on our asses with samples from the iconic TV show Vikings and some pretty detailed lyrical imagery… And this chaos is just the initial assault of the album.
The rest of the release follows in the same vein near enough. The tracks are either flat out grind monsters or murky, beefed up sludge titans… And there is one in there about a Walrus too, whether this is hallucinogenic late sixties inspired or not is a different question, but it’s in there… And it’s a pretty intense number anyway. There is also one about the fearsome “Sarlac”, made famous in ‘Episode VI, Return Of the Jedi’, which again is another relentless number, but instead of flat out fast, it is a slow, hammering number which closes the release in a real heavy way.
All things said, this is a chaotic slice of filthy noise but at times it can be predictable, given how most of the release is fast as hell! Still, slight gripes aside, it is thoroughly filthy, nasty sounding noise which hits hard and doesn’t let up from start to finish. A promising start for these guys!
(7/10 Fraggle)
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