«Still»
(Relapse)
Treading lightly is something that Chicago's Weekend Nachos, whose band name acts as a sort of comic relief whenever you think about it, simply are not tailored to do. Taking all the right cues from the school of Infest and Drop Dead, with «Still» they have completely outgrown their powerviolence roots, evolving not only into a much heavier beast but especially a more nuanced one, a path they had already set in a few years back with 2009's «Unforgivable». Sort of similar in construction to Nails' latest, «Still» is less urgent but equally menacing, letting its hardcore traits act as the foundation from which the band explores almost every conceivable edge of extreme music. From the defiant, sludgy grindcore of «You're Not Punk», to the gritty crust of «Late Night Walks», slowing down to really hit the nail in the head on the crawling, almost doom-laden second half of «Watch You Suffer», its individual tracks virtues notwithstanding, «Still» is best consumed as a 22-minute fit of continuous rage. [PA]
«From The Ages»
(Tee Pee)
Earthless fans were by now probably wondering if the San Diego trio still had it in their hearts. Afterall, their latest full-length goes back over half a decade and despite a few releases since then, their soul has been a lot more in different side projects. Those fears, however, are gloriously squashed the minute guitarist Isaiah Mitchell launches into a vicious, shredding guitar solo that actually takes up most of the nearly 15-minute long opener «Violence Of The Read Sea», passing a very clear message that the band is not only alive but also in the mood to kick some serious amount of ass. The album artwork gives the idea of an ancient proposal, a getting back to roots kind of thing and rightly so. In the way it's structured, the four songs feeding off the preceding one while being quite different from each other, «From The Ages» comes across as a history lesson on what constitutes great rock 'n roll, helped by the heavy psych of «Uluru Rock», the cosmic calling of «Equus October» or the mammoth half-hour anthology of the title track. Some will fault this last one for being a tad overlong, but then again, that didn't keep «Dopesmoker» from becoming a classic, now did it? [PA]
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