Taken from Hellride - http://www.hellridemusic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19666 Moloch – S/T 10” (Shifty Records)
By Jay Snyder
March 30, 2009Collaborating with UK label Feast of Tentacles, Shifty again brings us another essential platter of tar for the eardrums. This isn’t my first time out with Moloch (UK). I’ve got a copy of their demo in my archives and it raped my ears relentlessly all throughout last year. Far and away, they’re one of the nastiest sludge bands going in the UK pantheon at this time.
Mangling their way through listeners like Jack the Ripper did with women, this slothful four-piece milks the filthy heave of Seven Foot Spleen, Spancer, Dystopia, Among the Missing (with far less punk) and Goatsblood; they take that sickening, heavier than a truckload of anvils mess of bass fronted, guitar bolstered hate groove, and beat you with it repeatedly over the head with the force of a telephone pole. The drummer (Dan) doesn’t so much as keep time as he does reverse it and “vocalist” Chris screams his larynx into a bloody oblivion, so depraved and spiteful it makes Mike D. Williams sound like a pretty happy guy by comparison. Surprisingly though, this shit has a mean set of movin’ legs too. Sweaty grooves bring the blues on strong and paint this evil shit with a fucking cool, catchy side.
We get started off with a brand new one on this 10”, “Thy Grief”, an all consuming motherfucker of a song. It must be noted that all of the songs on here are brand new, so those that have the demo shouldn’t ignore this one. Anyways, back to “Thy Grief”; holy shit is all that comes to mind! A brief sample of a woman screaming in agony creates a foreboding air, setting the tone for bruising slowness so heavy it plays Grief at their own game and even comes up one better. Miring away in their fetid swamp of depression, Moloch leisurely bludgeons away at your sanity; taking the time to play with their headless pretty before devouring the remains in one slimy gulp of entrails. It is then that the ultra slow bass groove and heathen riffs, shift into a crusty charge not far removed from colleagues Among the Missing. While a few hairs shy on the MPH, the up-tempo crust curmudgeon is certainly a nod to the UK’s ugliest crust/doom purveyors. And I’ll be fucking goddamned if a Sabbath-y little bass groove doesn’t lead to a stellar Iommi riff break, far above standard genre fare! On the contrary, this is upper echelon shit! Not boring, perfectly placed…the whole nine yards and it gives Moloch a reason to drive home a seemingly endless, suicide riff to finish this one off; topped off with beyond heavy skin pounding, crack addict feedback and nerve-shredding screaming.
What a way to kick this album off! Sets an all new standard for this sort of misery metal and it is reassuring that “Who is this, who is coming” doesn’t let all of us sludge bastards down! Hell no, in fact it stands to toe to toe with its predecessor in terms of sheer brutality. During the opening riff I detected the slight stench of Sabbath filling up my room. I could feel Moloch’s musical downer taking hold as it pounded me senseless and distorted my motor functions. With head-bobbing, I was settling in for a painstakingly slow ride. My buzz was short lived as a burst of thick, speedier sludge knocked me right out of my altered state. So, now I’m lying on the floor…shaking like a man needin’ his fix and the riffs get slower than molasses for the duration; Christ my achin’ head! Who thought a migraine could feel this good? Whenever it is distortion induced, the feeling is akin to a good whiskey bender, blackouts and all.
“Black Water” is the shortest composition herein, but does plenty while its here. Seven Foot Spleen pours Cavity a tall boy and then viciously forces it down their throat. You get the furious overdriven bass and never ending pain of the meanest, lowest crust/sludge out there, but the driving grooves provide some sort of blackened sunshine to keep your head out of the noose one more minute; if only to see what sort of debauchery Moloch kicks up on finale “Repulsion”.
Truly living up to its moniker, “Repulsion” is devoid of any form of typical groove. Hell, its like listening to grind stuck in hyperspace. You get dual vocals, a sickening wretch and guttural growl as Chris sounds as if he’s lying on a bed of nails without proper illusionist training to make sure they aren’t digging into his back. Unfortunately, he wasn’t that lucky and he’s howling in the vilest sort of agony imaginable. Musically, this one is slower than a pile of elephant shit and I guarantee it has got more flies hanging around! The bass is so distorted I felt my very innards shaking loose while the uneasy throes of feedback echo distantly at the moon. Total, “hate your life, kill your boss” kind of sludge from top to bottom.
What else can I say? These Moloch dudes are fucking deranged. This is up there with the heaviest the sludge genre has ever offered to its misanthrope following. The songwriting follows suite and even finds a way to work a rotten groove into the majority of the tunes. Moloch is among the angriest and the ugliest to roam the underworld these days and anyone with the ear for this shit, should toss this onto their “must buy” list! You want evil? Well, you fucking got it! It must be noted that this shitkicker collection of songs is also available on CD thanks to Choking Hazard Records, so those with a wounded record player can still get their jollies!