siLLy puPPy One of the best known Bay Area sludge metal bands was the avant-garde weirdos Giant Squid who got their wheels turning in Sacramento before finding a more suitable freakazoid home in San Francisco. This band was highly influential and innovative in its unique approach of mixing various musical styles such as sludge and doom metal with post-rock and chamber rock. The band’s unique stylistic approach that even incorporated the cello caught them the attention they deserved and the respect they demanded. Having existed for nearly 15 years, Giant Squid finally called it a day with their final release “Minoans” from 2014 presumably heading back to the depths of the sea.

It didn’t take long for the members to forge new paths. In fact it only took a single year for four members of Giant Squid, Aaron Gregory (vocals, bass), Zack Farwell (drums), Andrew Southard (keyboards, samples) and Bryan Beeson (bass) to reunite and form something completely new. That something new was the band SQUALUS which basically picked up where the great Squid left off. Now seasoned avant-metal musicians, these four guys released their so-far sole album THE GREAT FISH which like the Jaws reference on the album cover art, really does take a bite into your soul and just won’t let go. That is if you dare push play. The album features 11 tracks of avant-metal zaniness that ends the tour at just under 43 minutes which is merciful as this wild ride is chock full of bizarre compositions and artistic creativity.

Like Giant Squid, SQUALUS is primarily based in a sludge metal sound that zigzags all over the place including into the world of post-rock and pseudo-progressive rock. While the album art may seem like a random depiction of something really, really scary, the album is completely thematically based on the blockbuster 1975 film Jaws by Steven Spielberg. This is simultaneously a creepy sounding album as well as a noisy one. Sounding something like a 90s Neurosis mixed with a horror soundtrack release only set to faster tempos. The suffocating din of the riffage is a perfect refuge for vocalist Aaron Gregory to scream from under the din. While the tones and timbres are reminiscent of the great Neurosis, this is much more experimental with all kinds of twists and turns that even drift out of the metal world altogether as heard on “Eating Machine In The Ford” that is a freaky duet with male and female vocals.

Noticeably different from Giant Squid, SQUALUS doesn’t only drop the cello from its roster but it also completely abandoned any sign of guitars with the muddy fuzzed out bass completely taking the place of both. There does seem to be a mystery guest violinist occasionally such as on the closing “He Ate The Light.” The riffs are accompanied by a horror flick style keyboard which takes things into the land of weirdness and beyond. Add a few time signature twists and curve balls when you least expect it and it’s obvious that we have something really dementedly special on our hands. Given the extra duties of the bass, it’s not even apparent at first that there are no guitars to be heard as Gregory excels at taking the lead and finding that perfect in between zone where guitarists and bassists often commingle in the world of underground metal. Likewise Gregory’s vocals are perfectly suited for this murky shark infested musical maelstrom. Chillout moments are covered by a bass-rich style of post-rock that implements soothing piano runs.

So far the only album from this semi-Squid reunion however one split with Shadow Limb with different tracks appeared in 2018. Other than Zack Farwell who plays with another San Francisco band, Grayceon, most of these members of M.I.A. so perhaps a second coming of SQUALUS is in the works. As far as this sole release, THE GREAT FISH is an interesting array of powerful sludgy metal with art rock infused post-rock along with a few progressive twists and turns. Gregory is the star of the show here with not only stellar bass domination of the sludge metal but also provides an interesting vocal range that sounds like the perfect sludge metal singer as well as nailing the slower clean vocal melodramatic moments and narrations. The Jaws theme is well executed as well making this a pretty cool concept album. Best not to compare with the great Giant Squid despite obvious similarities because this band is in a world of its own making.