Charger – Confessions Of A Man (Mad Enough To Live Amongst Beasts)
It’s kinda funny to me that the “big labels” are picking up these kind of bands now… Earache has Rabies Caste and Cult of Luna, Ipecac grabbed Isis, and now Peaceville has Charger. It’s almost like the we need a “Godflesh” band trend we saw in the early 90’s. Peaceville chose better with Charger than they did back then with Sonic Violence I think, though Sonic Violence were pretty cool in their own right, they just never caught on. I had never heard of Charger, and with a name like that probably wouldn’t have bothered if I had, but this is great. Heavy, downtuned dirges, thick energetic grooves, screaming raw and slightly distorted vocals, discord, feedback. Ugly music. The despairing, tortured drone ruptures into driving mid tempos and faster crustier breaks. The production and playing is raw but powerful and the scathing vocals compliment it well. It combines for a fullness and a ferocity beyond a band like Eyehategod, who might be an easy rudimentary comparison, but not an accurate one. Charger balances the different tempos and dissonant chords to crushing ones well, and compose some potent tracks because of it. The slower stuff has more power against the faster breaks and visa versa, peaks and valleys… it makes for a much more engaging ride. “Confessions…” is a dramatic, vigorous display of sonic disfigurement wrought with fury and reflection. – Scott
PEACEVILLE
Worm Gear 