Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire/Nesseria split CD/LP

12.20.2011

Released on CD by Trendkill Recordings and on LP by both Throatruiner Records and Wooaaargh, this vicious split sees Denver, CO's Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire teaming up with French act Nesseria to offer up four tracks of uniquely gnarly grind apiece. Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire starts things off with 14-and-a-half minutes that perfectly balance slow, dingy, crushing heaviness with just the right amount of high-speed, frenzied chaos. I'm pretty sure this is my first exposure to the band, and I can't help but feel like this is what a fusion of Eyehategod and Terrorizer with any top-shelf power violence 7" would sound like. "Wrinkled Claws" has gotta be one of the heaviest songs I've ever heard—an absolute masterpiece. They refer to their style as "funeral grind", and I think I'm actually buying that. It sort of makes sense. There's more to it than that, of course, it's not that literal. There are a lot of sick, brilliantly dissonant riffs thrown around, for example, but... whatever the case, it's great. As for Nesseria, I've been impressed by their work in the past, and this 13 minutes of material continues that trend. There are a number of bands from France that have kind of mastered this dark, heavy, diverse style that utilizes a lot of hard-hitting rhythms and discordant textures; but Nesseria takes that approach into new directions by adding in frantic, grinding speeds while somehow retaining more of a recognizable (and slightly crusty) hardcore/punk edge (without diving into any D-beat territory or anything like that). As with many of the splits I've encountered lately, these two bands are a perfect fit: Similar in overall aesthetic, but still individual units that have something a bit different to offer the listener. Well done. See what you think by streaming the entire album below:

Both the CD and the LP are limited to 500 copies each (the vinyl breakdown is 300 on black and 200 on white), but the split is also available as a name-your-price (or free) download, so... there's absolutely no excuse not to give this a shot!