As heavy as a really heavy thing

Primitive Man

Caustic

Colorado three piece Primitive Man have been attacking the metal scene with their depressing, violent, misanthropic take on sludge metal for a number of years now. This is a band that has made a name for themselves by making extremely heavy terse music and performing dark and sinister live shows. The bands latest full length offering, Caustic, doesn't breakaway from this tradition. Right from the word go you are hit in the face with a tonne of feedback that breaks into crushingly heavy guitars on opening track My Will. The vocals are a terrifying mix of low inhuman growls and gutturals. This paired with the slow, methodical and crushingly heavy guitars helps to create the uneasy and claustrophobic atmosphere that Primitive Man are known for. The sound they manage to create often feels like it sits somewhere between Sludge metal and Funeral Doom. The entire album is uncomfortably tense. Despite the slow pace of the album the drummer manages to earn his keep, never missing an opportunity to fit in flurrys of drum fills in between the slow caveman-like crashes and slams. The album does also find room to pick up the pace with vicious bursts of grindcore, these moments make up some of the highlights of the album such as the closing section of second track The Victim and track from deeper in the album Sterility. I'm also personally very fond of the fact that their are several named tracks on the album, Caustic, Ash and closing track Absolutes entirely dedicated to harsh and uncomfortable feedback. Absolutes especially, a track close to the nine minute mark and made up entirely of samples, yawning ambient noise and feedback is another highlight and a great way to close an already tense album. This isn't to say however that it isn't an album without its problems. Caustic is an incredibly long album clocking in at close to an hour and twenty minutes and with a large number of tracks that are over the ten minute mark. This makes for an incredibly exhausting musical experience especially once you manage to get about three quarters of the way through the record. I think in a lot of ways Primitive mans music may lend itself better to the EPs and Splits we are used to them releasing as apposed to a full length album like this. That doesn't change the fact that Caustic is still an extremely heavy album and definitely a worthwhile listen for fans of Primitive Man and any fan of extremely heavy music.


FFO: Thou, Seabastard, Meth Drinker, Corrupted

7/10