By Jake Murray
Are you a fellow with a lot of hair on your head and/or face? Do the following things make your heavy heart lift with joy: mosh-pits, fast drums, devil horns, Jägermeister, Metalocalypse, fuzzy bunnies, rainbows? If the answer is a cookie-monster-growled "Y[örrrrrrrrr]ES" then you're gonna love what I've got in store for you today, my dear dear riffmuncher. Thrill Jockey's latest release is the début album from Chicago blast-inferno thrash monsters Oozing Wound, and if you think I've been joking about anything up to this point, you're so so wrong.
'Everyone I Hate Should Be Killed' pretty much says it all as an opener. It's fast, furious, but luckily Vin Diesel is nowhere to be seen. In fact, to describe one song on this record as fast or furious makes no sense, because the whole album runs at the same speed - well over the limit. 'New York Bands' is equally chaotic but is blessed with a good three minute breakdown of fuzz and thunder (Dear Oozing Wound, please call your next album of Fuzz and Thunder). It's actually these fuzzy slow-moments that really make the album special… sure the band is really about blasting it, balls to the wall, but the Melvins-styley sludge interludes make these thrashouts all the more effective.
If there's one thing Oozing Wound really do deserve credit for on this record, it's their ingenuity for song titles. To list but a few, there's the incredible 'Welcome to the Spacehip, Motherfucker' with it's Slayer inspired riffs and energy, 'Autopsy Turvy' (need I say more, really?) and the albums awesome closer 'Spirit Manimal'. It's likely that, rather than taking the boring approach of extracting lyrics for a title, the guys sit around drinking beers and coming up with genius names for songs before even writing the songs themselves, and if that is the case it's definitely productive.
Retrash is not a long album, though is is a large one. The fury in these riffs absorb you direct you through their own course. One minute Oozing Wound will have you head-banging furiously, or moshing with yourself, the next you'll be still, amazed at the huge wall of sound before you. 'Wall of Sound' is often chucked around as an easy term to wash over any band with a slight layer of intensity to their music, but these guys really do Wall of Sound. Take it from me, I'm a professional!
Whether it's with 'Sustained by Hatred (Rambo 4)' with drummer Kyle Reynolds crashing cymbals like it's Lars Ulrich's business, or the insane aforementioned 'Spirit Manimal' where frontman Zack Weil and bassist Kevin Cribbin battle it out, the album throughout seems like the members are either battling each other to the death or you, the faithful sore-necked listener. It's clear by the end of the record why the band have been touring with Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt, Black Puss) and it's equally clear from the first few minutes why they chose to record the album in the sacred Electrical Audio studios. Retrash is raw, energetic and unforgiving… it's also FUN and INSANE and HUGE.
There hasn't been a thrash band this demanding and impressive since the dawn of Slayer a long long time ago. There's room for more hooks, but what the group lacks in "pop sensibilities" they more than make up for in big hairy man balls. This is a meager qualm and an expected one, as debut albums are so often more rough around the edges, and this band is certainly one to develop further and stronger.
Good work, Thrilly Jokey for signing another belter. Good work, Oozing Wound for putting a few more hairs on my bare, swimmers chest.
