Thursday, August 23, 2012

Heavier than Thou SLUDGE from Arizona : LADYBIRD


 
If there's an indication to find behind either the band's name or this demo's cover in order to identify their musical style, then everyone would choose the cover and yet, save the blackness largely retranscribed in the band's music, this cover doesn't reveal much at least at 1st sight... All this to say that behind this charming name of LADYBIRD is not hidden an harmless small insect but rather a venomous snake that could commit irrreversible damages upon your soul ! This burning SLUDGE trio plays in the sickest category of the genre, think about WEEDEATER, DOPETHRONE and even ORDER OF THE OWL for this scary evil touch in those possessed vocals and deaf, dissonant echoing... If I was from Marseille, understand constantly exaggerating, I would even say that the vocals in LADYBIRD could make sound the wellknown vocalists from those three above mentioned bands like innocent choirboys !!!  
Oustandingly FUZZY and LOUD,  those 3 songs (pretty long, from 8 to 10 minutes) are kinda physically and mentally demanding - if you're usually more clean than the average Sludge fan ! - but perversely delightful... 
Starting with "Ontological Physicalism", you won't need more than a few seconds to find that LADYBIRD is viciously penetrating and crushing ; the overall is slow and mesmerizing, dirty and terrific too which somewhat justifies here their humoristic description of "Hillbilly Metal"... in the sense that it sometimes makes you feel a harsh tension that you're caught in a sadistic ambush full of  bearded men with bulging eyes, half-consanguineous and just wanting to terrorize your brain.
 Of course they're not the first, but those nasty boys from the south succeed insidiously to transpose you in their most hallucinogenic trips and if such amount of fuzziness and loudness can eventually become slightly too oppressive, stifling after the first 12 minutes (at the middle of the 2nd song "Gone Away"), you get then an amazing bluesy mood, moist and dusty, to appease your pain.
LADYBIRD are not just executionners !!! It's confirmed with the groovy start of last song "Slow" before they come back to some bursting, freaked-out Sludge Doom to complete you definitely until the next listening, which believe me will confirm your growing addiction for this bewtiching LADYBIRD.
You really should not miss them, I'm convinced that we've got here a band that will become HUGE in no time;  more is uggerly awaited !

 I asked a few infos to Brett about the band, here's what he answered :
"Well, 2/3 of us is from south carolina, while the other 1/3 is from arizona. we don't really have any significant past bands that did too much. our first show was with thrones. we played with black cobra, twin giant, and some fucking band that said they sound like foo fighters and then played a foo fighters song. we recently did a couple small weekend tours. played in denver with In the Company of Serpents, fucking badass, and in Long Beach California with Pigeonwing who we are sharing the stage at an upcoming fest in tucson arizona called "southwest terror fest".
We are recording in september aiming to release a ep and most likely a split. trying to find a label to put shit out for us. gonna have artwork done by hunter hancock, and aiming to tour the west coast sometimes in february."

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