Javelina Review
by Mark Hensch
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The quartet known as Javelina stampedes from the concrete jungle of Philadelphia with war and frenzy in tow. The band, who injects their brand of sludge metal with frenzied savagery, unleashes a beast of an album with their self-titled debut. Lean, mean, and animalistic, Javelina as an album attacks with punk's exuberant rage alongside sludge's crushing heaviness.
Javelina formed in 2005, the product of cross-breeding between acts like Lickgoldensky, Smut, and Endless Nightmare. The monstrous hybrid resulting from this musical tampering resounds with all manner of diverse influences. First in line is the groove of sludge masters Buzzov*en, whose unique sound provides a defining template for Javelina's own. After this, the raw war-mongering of atavistic bands like Lair of the Minotaur, Teeth of the Hydra, or High on Fire completes Javelina's sonic signature.
"1000 Pound Man," for example, immediately stomach punches listeners with a molasses-thick riff straight out of the Buzzov*en playbook. From here, the band pillages eardrums with its own mid-tempo crush, the likes of which is equal parts uncivilized and murderous.
"Let the Blood Flow" ups the intensity even further, attacking with galloping percussion and harried harmonics that sound like fleeing prey. The song's actual body---one of predatory war sludge---careens with Lair of the Minotaur's barbaric presence but infinitely sharper melodies.
"Gored to Death" sways with bourbon-soaked menace, all before igniting itself into a trampling mix of breakneck grit and repeated stabs of sludge groove. Snappy flicks of melody meanwhile cut like a knife fight, all of it leading into a cathartic rhythm section workout towards song's end.
"Ghost Pain" bucks like a belligerent bronco, its antsy rhythms betraying the lingering effects of Lickgoldensky's coke-binge theatrics on the band's psyche. Shamanistic and trance-inducing, this song attacks with the hypnotic bloodletting of an Aztec priest heart-cutting ceremony.
"Asbestos" rants and raves with High on Fire levels of hysteria, Javelina pushing their murky brutality into faster speeds. Low down and dirty, "Asbestos" barrels past like a herd of buffalo, with just as much devastation and senseless violence.
The creepy yet wistful "Architect" stumbles through a bleary-eyed ballad of absolute haze. Even at its heaviest moments, the song still maintains an air of intoxication, its slow-motion riffs drifting by like the thickest of fogs.
"Tyrants" rattles, hums, and jangles its way through a noisy barrage of thickset heavy metal. This wicked little anthem features plenty of gruff sing-alongs and booze-drenched vitriol, making for gripping, fist-pumping music indeed."Throttled" does just that, choking auditory canals with nothing but tight, warm-blooded ire. At one point sinking into a mire of unmistakably ferocious mud, "Throttled" ends with repeated jets of mutilating melodies.
All of this leads into the riotous "Clergy of Snakes," the unhinged call-to-arms an album like this should end on. A blood-boiling percussion rhythm slinks its way through a torrent of tar, as sludgy as it is dark.
It seems unlikely, but somehow Javelina keeps a fine sense of catchiness present in every moment of this fierce, unrelenting debut. Though a glaringly new specie in the sludge scene, Javelina appears well adapted in combating the best other bands in this genre can throw at them. Manic, deranged, and above all, wild, I for one cannot wait to see what Javelina evolve into next. Hunt this predator down while you still can.
Javelina's Javelina
1. 1000 Pound Man
2. Let the Blood Flow
3. Gored to Death
4. Ghost Pain
5. Asbestos
6. Architect
7. Tyrants
8. Throttled
9. Clergy of Snakes
CD Info and Links
Javelina Rating:8.5
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