Nourishment’s past two releases have been on kinda shaky ground in terms of song material in my opinion but anyway, on their newest one, they’re really hitting the nail on the head again with a batch of new tunes that deliver the familiar thrills way more consistently and artfully and for now, i’ll still say they’ve carved out a micro-niche very much of their own with both their compositions and atmosphere having way more in common with ancient death rock and contemporary post punk influences than anything currently happening in the wider blackened/dungeon punk landscape.
This is the third release already in just a couple months by this blackened-/dungeon punk act frome wherever in the US and just like its predecessors it’s yet another first-rate addition to the microgenre which approaches the stylistic signifiers of black metal from an uncommon post punk- and death rock angle to create a sound that’s in equal measure atmospheric, dense and layered while blasting a respectable crater in their own little patch of spooky dark forest all the same.
The californian label Grime Stone Records has long been way ahead of the curve when it comes to the more quirky ends of blackened- and dungeon punk releases and even if the musical merits of the bands and projects featured didn’t always manage to keep up with their lofty ambitions, these folks have also brought us some undeniable contemporary classics by the likes of Bloody Keep and Drýsildjöfull. The newest cassette by Curta’n Wall is yet another strong contender for the latter category, being a prime example of the more playful and egg-ish – though also in a way quite traditionally dungeon synth-inspired – end of the genre spectrum, drawing on some of the strongest tunes in their already quite prolific discography as a rock-solid basis for their insane sonic escapades while toning down some of the cheesiest (previously often unbearably so) aspects of their sound just enough to hit a certain sweet spot with me. While parts of their previous work have struck me as more novelty than substance, this record has finally grown a healthy amount of real meat around its bones.
Now i suddenly remember that, like, two weeks ago, i was thrilled as hell to see a new Nourishment EP being released and then apparently failed to bookmark it and forgot about it in the last couple weeks’ relentless flood of new releases. Happens to me all the time. Well, better late the never i guess. The sonic parameters on this one stay roughly the same for the US-based blackened-/dungeon punk group, althought the production values appear to have been improved a tiny bit here. As before, the new record captivates with a distinct spin on the genre that once again appears to take plenty of inspiration from contemporary, dark goth-infused post punk and oldschool death rock.
Incredible new Dungeon Punk-related material from a mysterious group operating out of some unspecified dark forest located somewhere in the US. These folks approach the whole blackened punk thing from a heavily post punk- and goth/death rock-leaning angle, shrouding their fully developed, well-rounded song architecture in a beautifully fucked-up, blown-out Lo-Fi aesthetic, altogether reminding me of a couple of fairly recent genre entries by the likes of Conifère, Unsheather and Bloody Keep.
The excellent 2-song demo by this Philadelphia group has me hooked already with Head Full Of Glue being a deliciously spiky and abrasive lump of noisy dungeon-esque, blackened hardcore punk with vague similarities to groups like Piss Wizard, Dick Hick and Jeg Hüsker, wrapped in a thick layer of white noise. The second track Stone Fruit is even better – a clearer sound lets even more weirdness bubble up to the surface in a post punk-ish tune seamlessly fusing the aesthetics of egg- and dungeon punk, which among other thinks i’m pretty sure will thrill fans of that recent Molbo comp on ETT.
