Burmese opens this fucker up with 10 tracks that basically amount to straight noise. Some of it's raw, harsh electronic noise; some of it's guitar, bass, vocals, and drums recorded with what sounds like one mic in an intensely loud room. The average track runs less than a minute, and they blaze through the first four cuts in a combined two minutes that's quite a blur. Then "Sweet Fucking Mouth/Living Wage" is a little more spacious and lets the vocals play a larger role so there are some actual, tangible riffs involved, though it's still a chaotic and noisy venture that doesn't feel like a "song". I honestly really don't care for this kind of stuff at all because it's annoying, emotionless, and I feel like anyone could do it. The electronic noise tracks are a little stronger just because if I want noise I want noise, not a bunch of random instrument bashing, but even the true noisescapes are too short and underdeveloped to have much substance. "White Suicide" is probably the best piece because distorted bass drives the track and despite a frantic ending the first half of the song is actually pretty forceful, leading into a solid noise ending with some spoken vocals and crispy distorted hums in "Into It". The first eight tracks are basically crap, though. Fistula then takes the reigns for the greater part of the disc with four songs of insane sludge. Beginning with "Green Lung", one of the most detuned songs I've ever heard, where even the drums sound loose and detuned in somehow. I don't know how these dudes even keep their strings on their instruments, because it's all just churning, rumbling chords. The "vocals" in the track consist of nothing but coughing and the sounds of lighting up and smoking, which is fucking cheesy and stupid, but whatever. "Powers That Be", however, follows by breaking into some faster riffing that has a crossover hardcore vibe, of course blended with a core of sludgy midpaced riffing and scathing vocal screams. Original? Nah, but they're pretty god damn good at what they do, so they blow Burmese out of the water on this one. "The Basilisk" continues with a lot of memorable guitar parts that prove that these dudes write great fuckin' riffs - pretty standard for the genre, but they're excellent writers, and that makes a huge difference in how memorable these songs are. There's just a lot of energy to the tempo changes, and they use repetition well too. "Caterpillar" being a good example of that, acting as one of the most consistent and traditionally styled tracks of the bunch, so far as the whole "stoner rock" related genre goes. Their recording is fine. Nice and dry, with the ripping screams holding their own with the guitars, and tons of gritty textures over all of the distortion. Turning up the bass wouldn't hurt, or at least making it more noticeable, but they're good to go otherwise. There's not much to the layout. No lyrics are included, so you get one tiny band photo and credits for each act, and then some images of apes and some architectural devices, but that's really about it. I'm not that into it, but it looks okay and gets the job done, so that's that. What can I say? The Fistula songs are great, but Burmese is weak. Skip the first 10 minutes of this thing and then get to it. I'd definitely like to hear a full-length out of Fistula. No doubt.
[Crucial Blast]
Running time - 28:34, Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: White Suicide, Into It, Powers That Be, The Basilisk]
Crucial Blast - http://www.crucialblast.net
