Corrupt Moral Altar - Whiskey Sierra 7"

Corrupt Moral Altar are bad for me. The last time I saw them play I ended up spending every last penny I had on shit beer, staggering around Glasgow city centre 'til 3am in search of something deep-fried before giving a couple of them drunken directions back to where they were meant to be crashing that night. Considering it was only around the corner from my own flat, I'm reasonably sure it took far longer than it should have.

Like I said, they're bad for me.

That said, when a band plays the kind of utterly fucking manky racket that can be heard on their Whiskey Sierra 7", what do you expect?

Kicking straight into the title track, the riff immediately grabs you in a headlock, before the drums proceed to knock your skull in. It's total cacophony, never relenting for a second. Even the breakdown about halfway through offers no breathing room, inflected with blastbeats and shrieking vocals as it is. Closing out with a sludge tempo stomp, they keep up the intensity right to the end, before launching into the blistering 'Lord'.

Drummer Tom Dring lays down a not-quite-d-beat rhythm that the rest of the guys make some downright vile noise over the top of. Every time I hear this track, the "WOO!" a few seconds in has me cracking up. It's like Refused, if they had any fucking balls on them that is. The first half of the track is a start-stop staccato stagger, before they lower the dose and take the whole thing down to a doomy crawl.

The atmosphere of the latter half of track is totally different to the rest of their output, and is a great example of where they could take things when they get around to recording a full-length record.

Whether they're playing fast or slow, either way it ain't fucking pretty.

The last two tracks are songs that could originally be found on their Luciferian Deathcult EP, as well as their Needle Drugs demo. I'm pretty sure these are the recordings from the Needle Drugs session.

Either way, these songs are just as raw as the two newer tracks, Chris Reese's vocals sounding particularly scathing on 'Politics Is A Bargain Between Beggars', and the abrasive groove of 'You Don't Have To Go To Clown College' demonstrating just why so many folk toss around Iron Monkey comparisons when talking about CMA.

That comparison may be apt, but it doesn't quite convey just how fucking furious this band are in their own right. The swaying breakdown that closes out the record will provide the perfect soundtrack to my own wasted movements when I see them live again in a couple of weeks.

Pray for my liver.

Whiskey Sierra is available for free download off their bandcamp, and you can pick the actual 7" up from the band's bigcartel. I recommend doing that because it's available with a variety of mental t-shirt designs for a total fucking bargain price. Go grab one!

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Iron Witch / Corrupt Moral Altar - Classic Grand, Glasgow

13. Unlucky for some, as it was the night of the Iron Witch/Corrupt Moral Altar show, when an unfortunate plumbing situation in the basement of the 13th Note caused the show to be cancelled. The promoters managed to find another venue at the last minute, and the two touring bands were able to set up at the Classic Grand, though unfortunately that left no time for local openers Headless Kross and Skeleton Gong. Bummer.

After finding a pub with much cheaper/better booze than the new venue, I eventually headed upstairs to find Iron Witch just starting their set. I was so fucking relieved that the show was still going ahead, I'd been waiting to see them for a couple of years, and they were well worth the wait, their filthy take on vintage sludge the perfect accompaniment to many, many alcoholic beverages.

Their lineup has changed significantly, now incorporating two members from Corrupt Moral Altar, though Chris Fane's acerbic howls are still as tortured as ever, the stumbling, disoriented march of impressively bearded rhythm section, drummer Will Adams and bassist Rick Owen now screeched over by CMA's Tom Dring and John Cooke on guitars.

The set passed by in a whiskey-fuelled blur, at least it seemed pretty short to me, but then I could listen to this strain of feedback and misery for hours. It was just great to finally catch them live, and I can't wait til my next opportunity.

Corrupt Moral Altar's set was a bit more chaotic in terms of both sound, and crowd reaction; people were hanging from the ceiling, throwing each other across the room, spilling drinks all over each other and generally acting like drunken morons, to their set of thick, nasty grind. It was fucking brilliant, the sort of band that would work perfectly on that mud-caked and booze-flooded stage at Obscene Extreme, so someone make that happen, eh?

Despite the setbacks, venue change and losing half the lineup, this was still an excellent show, and the bands and promoters should be commended for their work to make sure it still went ahead. If you missed out, tough shit, you'll just need to wait 'til the next time these reprobates venture north of the border.

Check out both bands here:
http://ironwitch.bandcamp.com
http://corruptmoralaltar.bandcamp.com/

Iron Witch - Single Malt tape

I originally bought this tape back in March of this year, then kind of disappeared to Europe for a few months, arriving back to find this little parcel of filth waiting for me. No fucking around, time to give it a whirl...

It hisses to life with 'A .45 To Pay The Rent' which, as just about anyone else who has heard this band also mentions, is pure EyeHateGod worship. By no means a bad thing, obviously, since there's been a drought of EHG releases for over a decade now. Anyway, that's what they do, and they do it damn well. Though the titular gun reference is a bit daft for a band from North-east England, and not the Southern swamps.

The EP's title track 'Single Malt' is a much catchier affair, while retaining the tortured Mike IX-esque wails. The main riff is downright boogie-able though, and shows they might let their other influences come to the fore sometime in the future.

Third track 'Booze Blues' is endless feedback with a song buried in there somewhere. When they eventually get going, it's great, but even NOLA's finest don't use that much feedback! This track is a tortured dirge of a thing. Fucking horrible. In a good way.

'Jailhouse' is another decent groovy one, but it's final track 'The Cruelty of Mankind' that does it for me.
I like my sludge of the truly trudging variety, and this track's extended intro is just that. Lovely stuff.
About halfway through they kick up the tempo, but it soon crashes back down again to a crawl.
Filthy feedback ends the tape as it began.

These guys might not be the most original band going, but if you like your sludge dirty, howling and feral, get into 'em. If I get the chance I'll be attending their Sheffield show in December with fellow up-n-coming UK doom hordes Conan, Slabdragger and Moloch.

You can get this on cassette from Opaqus here:
http://opaqusrecords.storenvy.com/products/289638-iron-witch-single-malt
Check out that distros other releases, loads of obscure shit, some of it pretty damn good.

If you're a prick that doesn't pay for music, you can download it for free from the Iron Witch bandcamp:
http://ironwitch.bandcamp.com/
Though they have a 'pay-what-you-like' option too, so any eccentric millionaires reading this, make them rich enough to fund their whiskey habits.