Connecticut and Norway are a pretty long ways off from each other. While the latter has a reputation as a birthing room for some of metal’s most influential babies, the former…well…not so much. However, the reality is that Connecticut (and really all of New England), while not on par just yet with Norway, has still been churning out some monster releases over the recent years. One of the bands making some noise, both literally and figuratively is New Haven’s Grizzlor. On their most recent release, they decide to split a seven inch with their Norwegian, sonic equivalents, Barren Womb. The result is worlds colliding in glorious, anarchistic bombast.
The first two tracks on this split belong to Grizzlor. Opening with the absolutely thunderous, “at sea” and followed up with the aptly titled “it’s all bullshit,” Grizzlor do their best to simply bludgeon listeners with a broad array of power and discordance. The opening track is a deftly-penned homage to the 90’s Amp Rep sound, where bands like Unsane and Today Is The Day ruled and ruled hard. The follow-up is a battering wave of sonic fury, like being beaten with a blackjack after stumbling out of the local dive bar too drunk to defend yourself. Both tracks, really, are violent outbursts of bass and drum heavy cacophony, amplified by dissonant riff work.
While Barren Womb may not be as purposefully scattered as Grizzlor, they certainly don’t lack for the same vexation-leaning, riotous outbursts. They open their half of this split with the explosive “blowback mountain,” a track that hearkens back to the earliest and most beautiful days of American metalcore where bands like Coalesce, Starkweather, and Disembodied cleaned clocks on a nightly basis. The final track on the this little, four-song gem may very well be the best one. Barren Womb’s “hazmat suit” will have the stodgiest, old scenesters up and in the pit. It’s got the same type of catchy hook that a band like Refused would sling out, only covered in multiple layers of crusty punk goodness, finally finishing off in somewhat ambient waves of hypnotic clamoring. It’s the perfect ending to an EP that will warrant multiple listens in a very short span of time.
The Grizzlor/Barren Womb split release is out now on Riotous Outburst Records and can be experienced and purchased at the Riotous Outburst Bandcamp page.
Grizzlor and Barren Womb are also finishing up a U.S. tour together. Those in the Northeast can catch them in either New Haven, CT on Friday, April 3 at Three Sheets or Saturday, April 4 in New York City at Webster Hall Studio.
