GAZA- ‘No Absolutes In Human Suffering’
Bark, bite, blood, and everything in between. The third full-length from Salt Lake City sludgecore crew Gaza is a furious, feral, cornered wild animal of a record. Cuts and bruises inflicted by bad tours, bad blood, betrayal, politics, war, and the never-ending trudge of human existence haven’t beaten the band down but made them stronger, harder, more cynical. And they’ve formed calluses in the shape of songs.
Opener ‘Mostly Hair And Bones Now’ doesn’t just have a great title but a raging bloodlust, and when it really kicks in, it sounds like its only intent is to find you and to kill you, and the sub two-minute ‘The Truth Weighs Nothing’ is a rolling ball of butcher knives.
But Gaza do much more than all-out war here. Sure they rumble and rage like a violent crusty punk band destined to exist for only three insane months or something, but there’s the dynamic energy of Botch (‘This We Celebrate’), the crushing power of prime Vision of Disorder (‘The Crown’), and dark and twisted space rock textures (‘Not With All The Hope In The World’). There’s even a little melody, nothing clean but just enough to lull passers-by into the falsest sense of security before snapping shut the jaws of doom around them. It’s all a polar opposite, an ideal antidote, to the sanitary metal that somehow equates anger only with breakdowns.
Of course if you don’t share the Gaza outlook, if everything in your life is coming up roses right now, ‘No Absolutes…’ won’t make much sense. Replay value here is directly related to how many days a week you wake up angry. Just tell them to cheer up at your peril ok.