IRON MONKEY — Our Problem (review)

Album · 1998 · Sludge Metal

4/5 · 2024-05-07
siLLy puPPy

Following the grime of the trench pit sludge metal experience that was the 1997 self-titled debut, IRON MONKEY quickly followed with its punchy sophomore release simply titled OUR PROBLEM, a title that belies its caustic excesses that if played loudly in public would make it everyone’s problem! The band’s second offering has been referred to as the ultimate bar fight music with its vicious anger raging across its 45 minute tantrum induced time length. Once again inspired by the New Orleans scene despite hailing from Nottingham, England, IRON MONKEY shifted gears on OUR PROBLEM and added a more musical element, namely a bluesy Southern metal shuffling effect that gravitated more towards Acid Rain this time around rather than the excess torturous displays of pain and anguish as heard from Eyehategod.

Graced with a better production job this time around thus lifting the album out of the lo-fi claustrophobic swamps of the 8-track debut, OUR PROBLEM was a much more professional sounding album on the Earache label and found the band showered with rave reviews and favorable acceptance although i feel the debut’s lo-fi filth and grime approach were quite appropriate for this style of iconoclastic sludgery. Given the greater emphasis on simple rhythms and melodic shuffles, the reliance on extreme feedback and distortion from the bowels of hell, while still creeping in at strategic spots, was deemphasized for a more Sabbath / stoner metal / Souther metal emphasis thus making OUR PROBLEM a bigger hit with those attached to such musical requirements but in the process lost a lot of the evil as fuck characteristics that made the debut stand out amongst the competition. Despite the hype the band didn’t exactly become the next Alice In Chains and remained a cult favorite for a few more decades.

Despite the more groove oriented leanings, lead vocalist John Paul Morrow had lost none of his demonically possessed vocal style and screams up a storm across this album’s run while the twin guitar provide a sludgy wall of sound and amplification without interfering with the audible bass bantering. Of course the melodic touches also dictated the more favorable drumming practices rather than the savagery of the debut that simply called for the most extreme bombast wherever possible. Falling in line more with popular tastes of the era, OUR PROBLEM was much more raved about than the over-the-top debut which took depressive nascent sludge metal to its most execrable extremes. While lacking the diverse motifs that the debut offered, OUR PROBLEM’s songwriting oriented tracks did allow for the use of dynamic shifts with fast groove based sludgery ceding to slower guitar-free bass moves and doomy time outs from a rather quickened pace that gave the album a bit of an alternative metal meets grunge feel as the underpinning of the song structures.

Fortified with ample doses of feedback noise and excessive crushing riffs with the occasional squeals and other tricks of the trade, OUR PROBLEM is considered a major step up in terms of quality from the self-titled debut but it really depends on your perspective now, doesn’t it? Personally i actually prefer the less musically inclined and more noise-centered debut but that does not mean for a minute that i dislike OUR PROBLEM in any way. Both albums simply take on a different emphasis with this one being more in line with the tastes of the public. Unfortunately IRON MONKEY would encounter personal and band tensions which led to its implosion shortly after this album even though a new lineup was attempted but with the untimely passing of Johnny Morrow in 2002 it seemed the band’s chances of a comeback were nil. However to everyone’s surprise the band resurrected in 2017 and has released two new albums as the new IRON MONKEY thus making the new incarnation currently as productive as the first.

On a personal note, IRON MONKEY was my gateway drug into the greater world of sludge metal and totally by chance. I simply loved the grim artwork and took a chance and fell for its raw grime upon first listen. If you wish to purchase IRON MONKEY’s debut as well as OUIR PROBLEM,” the most highly recommended way is on the combo pack of the 2009 compilation “Our Problem / Iron Monkey” which features both albums in their entirely as well as several bonus tracks for each albums and well worth it because the bonus tracks are every bit as dynamic as the albums themselves. As far as i’m concerned, IRON MONKEY’s debut is the pinnacle of the most extreme expressions of 90s sludge metal and remains one of my faves in the since diversified subgenre that splintered off the hardcore punk and doom metal hybridization wagon way back in the 1980s. The bonus tracks are quite different from the album proper with the feedback and fuzz laden “Omozu (Wisdom of Choking)” sounding much more like the early drone metal of Washington’s Earth.