Meatwound

Addio

USDA-choice noise-rock

dB Rating: 9/10

Release Date: July 17, 2015
Label: Magic Bullet

Since this is a metal magazine, when you run into a band called Meatwound, you pretty much have to assume the worst. And when you see that the first song is called “In Toilet,” then there is little doubt that you’re going to be dealing with some ass-ignorant trash metal. So, imagine my surprise when something great happened.

A member of this band was in combatwoundedveteran, and while this is not grindy screamo, it’s a good place to get your bearings. This is a bassheavy, guitar-chaotic, drum-puncturing, vocal-strained noise-rock thing of beauty. Six tracks of ’90s worship that have plucked juicy bits from all over to create a lovely smorgasbord of punk, hardcore and pigfuck: the Jesus Lizard groove in “I Am Transgressor”; the cement mixer riffing in “Meat Pack” reminiscent of Coalesce; the feedback breakdowns that drive a lot like Jehu; and even a few spazzy interludes that show the lineage back to the No Idea roster from yesteryear.

But even if it seems like the band is constantly shifting their influences, everything is kept in the same sonic ballpark, and there are no points of incongruity—it’s all just been loudly orgied together in some heaving mass of metallic racket.

While Meatwound may give people the wrong impression about what kind of band they are, it all makes sense in the end. This is some unsettling, painful, stomach-churning stuff, and while the name may not look wonderful on a T-shirt, it fits great in a record collection.

—Shane Mehling
Review originally printed in the September 2015 issue (#131).