Time Signature
This Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire-related band is called Primitive Man, and that's a very fitting band name, because theirs is music that appeals to the innermost primitive feelings of hate in us all, to the caveman in us all, to the Mr Hyde in us all.
Drawing on sludge metal of the heaviest kind, Primitive Man's debut album, Scorn, features tracks that combine crushingly heavy music with more uptempo and dirty d-beating sludge (the album is primiarily oriented towards the heavy and doom-aden aspect of the sludge continuum though). Further inspired by noise rock, Primitive Man have injected a lot of dissonance and unpleasant atmosphere into their music, and both droning sections and more well-defined riffs have, as a result, a very tense and muddy feel to them. The harsh growled vocals further add to this dark and muddy – or, well, sludgy – texture.
This intensity is definitely the main attraction point of the album, but it comes at a cost for those who like doom metal with more variation, because, to those who are not into, or do not understand, the finer points of sludge (and I admit to being one of those folks), Scorn may come across quite monotonous and not quite memorable. Furthermore, the choice to include two soundscape tracks in the form of 'I Can't Forget' and 'Black Smoke' is a bit of an unfathomable strategy to me, because, although this type of track definitely has artistic value, both of these tracks seem more like filler tracks (even if they, in reality aren't) than tracks proper.
But, if you like crushingly heavy and primitive sludge metal, then the Scorn-album in all its dissonant and doom-laden unpleasantness is a debut you simply should not miss out on.
(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)