voila_la_scorie A few years back, I found my musical interests gravitating back to my first love: heavy metal. I had been out of any new developments since the early nineties other than the odd album here and there which usually left only a lukewarm impression. So when I returned to the world of metal music, I had to do some research to find out what was going on in the scene and what I needed to do to get up to speed. One of the subgenres I soon learned about was sludge metal. The name sounded intriguing. I learned about Mastodon and Baroness and ordered albums. And I discovered that I liked sludge metal!

To date, my sludge metal album collection hasn't even begun to scratch the surface, but one album I recently got as a download from Bandcamp (would love a CD of this!) that has won me over is "Something for Everyone, Nothing for Anyone" by Biipiigwan.

Yes, the band name is curious. It's the Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe language) word for a war whistle. And before anyone can scream "Cultural appropriation!" you should know that band leader Musqwaunquot "Musky" Rice is Anishinaabe and he likes to use words from the Ojibwe language in the band's song titles.

"Something for Everyone, Nothing for Anyone" is the debut full-length release by Biipiigwan and their fourth release overall. It also remains their most recent release, unfortunately. The band continued doing live shows through to 2018 but since then their social media accounts have no new posts. The album's title comes from a joking remark made by one of the band members who referred to the band having a blend of metal, hardcore, sludge, doom, and noise rock in their music (something for everyone) but ultimately producing music that no one would be interested in (nothing for anyone).

Compared to their previous EP and demo releases, this album shows a remarkable improvement in professional recording quality. While the other albums were very indie-sounding with the looseness and roughness of a hardcore/sludge band intent on pulverizing the concrete of the sidewalks outside with sonic impact, this album sees the band entering a higher level of quality recording.

Their music still packs every pound of wrecking ball thump and wallop - no loss there! But this is the album that could have placed them as a world contender in sludge. In a January, 2014 interview in Decibel Magazine, Musky had these words to say about the album:

"I find the new record to be a little more riff-driven and not as dissonant and ugly-sounding as our earlier work and in my opinion that has to do with Mike (guitars) having actual musical knowledge (as opposed to myself) and my own song writing becoming a bit more focused. Because of that I think it’s more cohesive and accessible. Also, Topon did an amazing job recording the album; production-wise it’s the best thing we’ve released."

Generally speaking, the songs here are just solid crushers each of them, with Musky's vocals having all the subtlety of an angry biker who wants to make sure the Hell's Angels Chapter in the next town over can hear how pissed he is! My favourite track has to be "Shkweyaang" for it's frequent riff changes and for that one really awesome part where one guitar plays a new riff and then when the drums come in, the second guitar amp is just crackling and ready to spit sheer energy before the second guitar joins in with the riff.

This is one of those albums where I could feel as though the music was invading my brain and rapidly sending tendrils into all the blood vessels in my torso and tugging on my flesh from the inside. It's really a shame that I can't get this on CD because I'd love a physical copy. It seems like thievery that I could buy all three of the band's available releases from Bandcamp for under $7!

This is an album I will keep handy on my smart phone for some time to come. I sure hope the band gets together to record a new album in the next year or two.

Time Signature Crimson sword...

Genre: sludge metal

Sludge metal can be very challenging to listen to and, depending on the extremity of the approach of the artist, some can even be inaccessible to non-connoisseurs. If one were to judge on the basis of their odd name only, one would be forgiven for expecting inaccessible avant-garde sludge metal. However, on God's Hooks Biipiigwan strike me as being one of the more accessible sludge metal bands out there. That is not to say that their music is a dumbed down or commercialized version of sludge metal – that is not at all the case. It is just that they have taken a musical path that excludes many of the really quirky and weird elements associated with many more progressive and avant-garde sludge bands. There's nothing wrong with that, and God's Hooks is still very likely to be challenging enough to scare the crap out of the Lady Gaga-loving general public.

Just like bands such as Hard Charger, I Exist, Black Cobra, Black Tusk, and the more death metal oriented Elitist, Biipiigwan belongs to the category of sludge bands who do not neglect sludge metal's partial ancestry in hardcore and crust punk, drawing both on the aggression inherited from these genres and on the more psychedelic and doom-laden features inherited from southern rock and early doom metal. And Biipiigwan make this very clear in the opening track 'Beaches' which starts out uptempo and aggressive before gradually transitioning into the territory of slow and doomy music. Likewise 'Vegemite' starts out fast and furious before the band enter into heavier and slightly psychedelic passages. The much more compact 'Rhett' also follows this pattern, starting out an all out crust-blaster and suddenly changes into a heavier affair. In contrast 'In War' is kept heavy all the way, drawing on a series of repeated simple, but powerful, guitar figures – its overall feel is one of bleakness, but in the last two minutes the music becomes more layered and almost lush, which creates a very interesting contrast, and makes the track a quite stimulating one to listen to ('Crimson Sword' features the same sort of semi-lushness and, despite the use of tense chords, it is also a quite melodic and, at times, even pleasant track). The most challenging track, which is also the post progressive one, and perhaps even avant-garde, is the title track with its changes of tempo, growled vocals, break-downs and build-ups, and use of dissonant chords and harmonies. The closing track 'B'il Sabab' is a midpaced track with a stomping drive and some simple but compelling riffage.

While heavy at times, the music on God's Hooks is actually never slow as such – which is probably also one of the factors in the accessibility of the album. The balance between fast and heavy music is quite interesting as is the balance between simplicity and complexity.

Described as a blend of Yob, Neurosis and Unsane, Biipiigwaan captures the essence of the dual ancestry of sludge metal and is refreshingly energizing to listen to. Fans of I Exist, Black Cobra, Black Tusk and similar acts might like the album, and some fans of crust punk and hardcore punk might also find it interesting.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)