Drugs of Faith “s/t” CD

For anyone who happens to be unaware, Drugs of Faith is currently the central outlet for former Enemy Soil/The Index/Triac grinder Richard Johnson, and after a few years of solid (yet short) demo recordings the trio has finally dropped their first proper release—a self-titled EP on the Polish label Selfmadegod Records. Several of the demo songs appear here in re-recorded form, and the band's approach remains a caustic and dissonant attack that tends to defy simple categorization very well. There are certainly elements of blasting grind in place, but there's a twisted sensibility to all of the riffing that doesn't come across as straightforward grindcore at all. And even though some of the churning midpaced rhythms may bring to mind terms like "sludge" or "power violence", I wouldn't really go there either. They just powerfully tear through eight tracks in about 15 minutes and cover a lot of ground in the process, and that's all there is to it. I love the production on this thing, though. The vocals somehow sound fucking phenomenal, the drums are crisp and natural, the guitar tone is totally mangled and gives the force of the bass plenty of breathing room, and the end result sounds raw yet very balanced and efficient. Oh, and the lyrics are a cool mix of the personal and the political, also handled fairly atypically for the associated genres:

No sense dwelling in the past, but affairs such as these seldom make any sense. Time heals all wounds. While I wait I close my eyes.

Drugs of Faith "Burning"

Drugs of Faith is definitely a unique act that always manages to leave me wanting more, so I'm looking forward to hearing their future efforts already. Well done. Go ahead and contact the band directly for ordering information on this one, I'm sure it's fairly inexpensive (and worth every penny).