Desolate Void/ The Last Van Zant/The Parish (Crimes Against Humanity Records)

A new found buddy of mine sent this my way to review, he usually sends me the black and death stuff but along comes this sludge three-way that he felt I might like and I was sold after skimming through the Desolate Void tracks. 30 Seconds was all it took to convince me that this was one of those audio stains that I didn’t want to get out of my brain. No pussy grass stains (unless we’re talking about a different type of grass): this one is blood, sweat, mud, and beer; the true markings of the sludgehead.

In the Desolate Void tracks, all five, there is nothing but fast paced endorphin raging: Acid Bath/EyeHateGod/Black Tusk/Black Cobra, screeching and growling over a fist clenching storm of blazing fast riffs and bar room brawl inducing metal here. Southern Fried and greasy, steaming and dripping with the stench of horrid heat, hangovers and one hell of a wild night out, don’t blame me or these guys if you go ape-shit under the influence of this stuff, we warned you. With tracks titles like: “Broken Bones and Bullet Holes”, “ Ungrateful Bastard”, “Expect The Worst”, “ Unburn”, and “ 13”, you can’t go wrong here.

The Last Van Zant is another high-speed and low-end distorted obliteration of your senses through trench warfare in a pit. You can smell the BO, feel the boots in your back and the feel of someone’s face going into your fist as you spin around in a drunken frenzy that’s worth the bruises and possible broken bones (whether they’re your or not). This band brings the energy and addictive rhythms of the great bands mentioned above already. “Standing in Blood” really brings me in with the phrase, “Don’t mind me…Standing in Blood”, that alone makes me want to swing and go hog wild and blitzkrieg on everything around me. Another six tracks of solid adrenaline and drunken anarchy, approach with caution.

Now for the last two essential contributions to this split, I give you The Parish. Nothing different here from the other two, you just get a more epic Coffins/Winter sounding doom/death sludge on “Dark Days”, just as nasty and filthy as the other two bands, but this one is the darker side of it all. Killer riffs and slow Sabbathy grooves with growling vocals behind the mix sounding like a zombie in the background, almost a melodic stoner feel as well. Smooth and steady, melodic, yet every bit as aggressive and dangerous as the other two bands, The Parish polishes off this absolutely essential three-way sludge fuck as only the truly awesome could. If you can drink this one straight, you are one of the few and truly grimy…bottoms up!!!!!! This SOB SMOKES!!!!!!!!!!! Support the underground you shits!!!!

http://www.cahrecords.com/