I figure I’m somewhat familiar with Fight Amp at this juncture. They’ve found their way to the bottom of a coupla sludge-metal touring packages that have hit Toronto—albeit not in the past couple years. The Philly-area outfit is known for its Neurosis-inspired post-sludge and complete lack of stage lighting that makes them hard to see and even harder to photograph.
But, for whatever reason, I’d assumed them to have really long songs, like most artists in the post-sludge subgenre. As it turns out, this six-song EP only spans roughly 18-and-a-half minutes—an average of three per track.
“Ex Everything” gets ‘er started slowly with a gradual buildup featuring a riff right outta Matt Pike’s playbook. But they’re much slower than High on Fire on this plodding, chugging, mid-paced track. “Survival is Strange” is somewhat speedier—and actually, this one reminds me a fair bit of HOF, albeit with punkier vocals that give the proceedings somewhat of a Black Flag vibe.
The pleasantly-titled “You Don’t Wanna Live Forever” has a pounding hardcore pace with a leather-lunged verse giving way to a sickly sweet chorus. A coupla tunes later, the cheerier (in theory, anyways) “Happy Joyful Life” ends things on a noisy, grungy note. Hey, I can think of worse ways to spend 18 minutes…
