I would actually feel kind of bad wasting your time with inane self-analyzation on this one, because the music absolutely does not call for it; a short and to-the-point ass-kicking affair that has recently rekindled my love for the heavier stuff. So, let's be daring, skip the stupid shit, and rush through this 'un so you can spend the majority of your free time tracking it down.
Scald is an Irish three-piece that brings together the not-as-disparate-as-they-seem genres of sludge and crusty grind with a slight experimental touch (The final track includes a 20+ minute soundscape that's not great, but I greatly appreciate the effort). And it's damn enjoyable, something I wasn't quite expecting from the get go; a pleasant surprise that continued to deliver long after I decided that I had enough info to pen this admittedly overly gushy ode. Because, really, how could you go wrong with a heavily Napalm Death-influenced outfit that doesn't mind tuning low and playing slow on occasion?
Well, to be brutally honest, the songs do lack a little focus. I don't know if that's solely because Scald is endearingly sloppy. Without the sloppiness though, I think they'd lose a lot of their energy, as weird as that sounds. There's something to be said about bands that don't give a shit about the typical metal rat race. What I mean is that they don't care about building up massive chops and would rather rage instead of being stuck in a technical cage, never able to break out of their scale-runnin' rut. This rather refreshing approach really works for Scald; they just want to deafen some crowds and gee-tee-eff-ooh. I respect that, especially since there's this sort of all-in-one-take magic going on with most of the tracks on Fluke and that's exhilarating; like they never took the time to over-practice their tunes and lose the vicious aggression through over-familiarity.
And, familiarity ain't a bad thing when we're talking about the songs themselves. Any Napalm Death/Brutal Truth fan will immediately recognize the source of those high-pitched secondary vocals. Then, there's the d-beat-esque destruction that could place them alongside bands like Skitsystem and the like, but their allegiance to the down 'n' dirty, amp blowing power of sludge pushes them towards a hybrid that's not exactly new (these styles have crossed paths more than Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau have shared fanatical female fans, I'm sure), but is seeing a bit of a revival lately, what with the growing popularity of outfits like Trap Them. But, Scald is not exactly like that nor are they the NOLA-infused Soilent Green either, because there's a distinctly U.K. streak running through all of their shit (Like a stoned Discharge messing around with and sludging up Bolt Thrower's guitar tone, or something). Scald has the fine distinction of sounding immediately recognizable, yet kind of unique at the same time, which is probably why this disc is still a-spinning in my stereo as we speak. Good, fun stuff and one of the more recent album that's starting to bring me back to my most beloved genre. Recommended.
(See? I can still write a regular review every now and then. Thanks Scald).