RSS Feed


SERVANTS OF THE MIST
Gross Knowledge Of Genital Mutilation EP

Self-released (2014)
Rating: 5/10

I’m not sure I want an insight into genital mutilation, but it would seem that Tampa, Florida’s Servants Of The Mist are here to smother me with their seedy sludge. This is their second EP, and follows on from 2013’s Suicide Sex Pact.

The band consists of six members (s’cuse the pun!), those being vocalist Richard Smyth Jr, bassist Jason Kleim, drummer RJ Howley, keyboardist Brian Schille and guitarists Ed Tobar and Kenny Nguyen.

So, now let’s move onto the music on this digital-only release. Well, as one would expect from a band who like to throw themselves into the sludge metal pie, this is just a rather nauseating belch of dissonant, down-tuned droning darkness made all the more suffocating by those immense lumbering passages of doom and Smyth’s scratchy yet forceful pukes of grit. Sadly, sludge meal seems to exist in no other form, and so this four-track affair is completely bereft of variation and will appeal to only those who like to dwell in the rivers of murk where such ogres originated from.

To me, most of this dirge-like instrumentation seems pointless because while doom metal like, say, Burning Witch or Warhorse seems to offer something other than just a prolonged ache, Servants Of The Mist just loiter forever in those damp, swampy fuzz-outs which are probably the result of too many drags on that carpet-sized spliff they’ve concocted while recovering from the misery of a break-up.

I struggle to digest this sort of cumbersome music, because it is soooooo slllloooooooow to the point of utter ravaging boredom. It goes absolutely nowhere and disappears up its own quicksand-laced arsehole, and that’s the best place for such turgid nonsense. It evokes no atmosphere, and instead labours like the last soulless dinosaur that can be seen floundering in the lava of an Earth-raping volcano. With titles such as ‘Sadism & Suffering (An Introduction)’ and ‘Commit Suicide’ I’m certainly not expecting a joyous chime of summery bells, but when this stuff literally grinds to a halt it’s neither big or clever.

Even so, ‘Commit Suicide’ does suggest a band with an eye for a melody or two. Hardly upbeat, it does instil a belief in me for the band, however, because the riffs bubble with gargantuan menace instead of crawling in a cesspit of glue. In fact, vocally this has a punky edge too; those throat-scraping yelps come as a welcome respite from the usual dregs of anguish, but with the monstrous oath of melancholy that is ‘Undeserving’ to the equally bludgeoning slop of the title track, I’m left dehydrated by this dirty great mess of manure that has just been dumped in my garden.

Sludge metal is an acquired taste and too much of it leaves me not distressed, but just uninterested.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share