Listen up all you Sludgy-Come-Latelys, cuz this is the real-deal, right here. Originally released in ’97, this split between Oakland OGs Noothgrush and everybody’s favourite bunch of Japanese hispanohablantes, Corrupted, has been remastered and reissued by 20 Buck Spin.
Noothgrush starts us off with the caustic hate doom of “Hatred for the Species.” We get two minutes of downtuned despondency before the first lyric even kicks in—“Worthless human!” The riffs here recall Eyehategod, albeit played in slow-motion, save the slightly speedier section around the four-and-a-half-minute mark. This is not for the mild at heart!
But that’s only a small appetizer ahead of the 14-minute “Draize.” After a spoken-word intro, we get a whole bunch more dungeon doom, complete with heavy fuzz riffs and plenty of punishing breakdowns. A bass-driven passage around the 3:30 mark recalls Sleep’s “Holy Mountain” before the vocals make their first appearance past the five-minute mark. They bludgeon you with the slow pace and doomy riffs, adding another super-slow bass passage just shy of the nine-minute mark, before a plodding, menacing drumbeat brings the rest of the band back in, chugging along slowly until the end.
Corrupted’s 15-minute track “Inactive” starts off with fuzz and feedback, before an equally plodding doomy riff kicks in. The vocals sound like someone’s gargling glass, with the lyrics completely unintelligible. It’s almost like they saw how harsh and caustic their counterparts were off the top, and raised them in the unnerving department. There are no tempo changes here, just one repetitive riff that drags on, making you all the more uneasy as it continues in its hypnotic, dirge-like precision. There is a second one that starts around the midway mark, creating a bit more a push-pull dynamic. We then switch to an even slower, murkier approach for the final four minutes. Funeral doom, eat your heart out!
NOOTHGRUSH / CORRUPTED – SPLIT LP ***PRE-ORDER***
listen.20buckspin.com/album/noothgrush-corrupted
