Saturday, April 23, 2011

Baptists - 2011 Baptists


Band : Baptists
Album : Baptists
Release Year : 2011
Genre : Chaotic | Hardcore

Tracklist :
1. Good Parenting
2. Farmed
3. Bachelor Degree Burn
4. Life Poser

The photo that accompanies this press packet features a picture of guitarist Danny Marshall going crazy in front of a stack of Orange amps. In a way this photo sums up the bands sound, a combination of the amp worshipping and destroying sounds of stoner riff mongers and hardcore punk ragers, which we will name here “Southern Lord Core.” Doom core may already be taken, but this just moniker just says what the band sounds like. It’s filthy, dirty Sabbathy riffs played extra loud through vintage amps and combined with the nastiest of hardcore. It’s metallic and hardcore, but definitely not metalcore in the way bands like All That Remains and Killswitch Engage (along with their many clones) are. It’s like doom meets hardcore, but even that moniker is a little too simple of an explanation to say how this band sounds. Over the course of this four-song EP, they manage to totally exceed expectations with various tweaks and nuances.

First track, “Good Parenting,” is straight-up, fast and heavy plowing through your speakers like a tank on jet fuel. But from there, they push things a little bit. “Farmed” starts out fast but then adds a noisy feedback laden breakdown in the middle, slowing things down a bit to a sludgy crawl. “Bachelor Degree Burn” slows down things even more as the band gets down tempo and stays there for the duration ending in another squall of vicious feedback. Closer, “Life Poser,” starts out with just the drums and bass pummeling with a pseudo tribal groove, while the guitar spits out shard of noise on top of it, before breaks into a run for the last part of the song.

So, throughout the four tracks, the band shows considerable depth adding little extra touches that deepen their sound. It’s an excellent introduction to a band, which, if they keep the momentum and creativity going for the inevitable full length to follow, will definitely be another monster band on the Southern Lord roster. This label seems to have good luck with bands like this. I’m sure you’ve heard of Black Breath and The Secret?
It is definitely recommended for all fans of doom, hardcore and everything in between, making it quite the impressive debut.





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