It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with a split from Stimulant and Water Torture.
What’s that? I’m featuring another release from Nerve Altar? How peculiar. Well, I’d been sleeping on this one for a bit due to other releases dropping. So, sleep no more, let’s bite into this cookie.
Water Torture and Stimulant, you may recall, are pretty close to the same band. Water Torture’s sudden departure was unfortunate for powerviolence, as they only did one destructive full-length (but also did a ton of splits). The double bass and three-way noise attack of Thomas Leyh, Ian Wiedrick and Matt Goodrich was insane; thick, unhinged, noisy, forward-thinking powerviolence.
Stimulant sees only Leyh (now drums/vocals/noise), and Widrick (guitars/vocals/noise) working as a power grinding duo now. And with this only being their second release, they show no signs of diminishing quality. Stimulant was an incredible 2017 release, and here they’re only solidifying their genre masteries more.
The Stimulant side offers up fourteen tracks played at vicious, grinding breakneck speeds with noise and some breakdowns in between. You might notice that when “Feedback Pulse” really kicks in. After a noisy slap that gradually speeds up, Stimulant are blasting like they’re trying to punch holes through the speakers. The whole thing sounds like a more erratic Iron Lung. And these songs get fast, I mean blasting on crack. “Colossal Mistake” is a dizzying grind/powerviolence-fest of fits of blasting rage, noise, feedback and slow, beatdown like sections. It’s like a series of elaborate heart attacks.
But it’s when the Stimulant side comes closer to conclusion that it sounds like a bridge is being placed between this and the Water Torture tracks. “Tissue” and “Strangled Thought” feel like they slow us down and get us prepared for one last hurrah. And I know, “Tissue” starts out really, really, really fast but by the time it’s over it sounds like it could almost have made it onto Pillbox. Meanwhile, “Strangled Thought” is like the final fighting gasps. Slower, still loud as hell, some speed, heavy, and still in a fit of rage.
The Water Torture side is a schizophrenic flip. Really, really fucking heavy and filthy. Still noisy, but way less fast. Mostly it trudges along like it’s a slowly crumbling skyscraper. Think chunks of double bass guitars and noise hit at every turn. When the split opens with “Pilgrimage”, it’s immediately apparent who you’re listening to. The side is more sludgy noise, the powerviolence/grind aspect that was found on Pillbox and other releases is absent here. If it wasn’t so pissed off it’d be meditative. Nevertheless, it’s a killer send off for what’s the band is calling their final release.
It’s been awhile since I featured a split, but damn is this one fine release. Not surprising given both bands’ past works and shared members. If you like grind, sludge, powerviolence, noise, just fast or just slow music, there’s something on here for you. If you aren’t already following Nerve Altar releases, it’s time you were. In the meantime, get grinding on this insane release. Water Torture, rest in power. Stimulant, keep ‘em coming.
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