Review Summary: Primal sludge carnage.
Iron Monkey is a iconic sludge metal band, thanks to their two albums released in the late '90s. The band was revived a few years ago under the leadership of their riffcrafter, Jim Rushby. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed their brutally savage 2017 comeback album (titled
9-13), so naturally I was excited about
Spleen & Goad as well...
Talking about the album
Spleen & Goad is both difficult and easy. Let me explain: the whole work is as simple as a slap—and really, what can you say about a slap, especially when everyone knows what it's like? In terms of how the album works, the “slap” looks like this: a mix of incredibly heavy, visceral riffs, noise, pounding drums, and monstrous scream in nine tracks. And that’s it...
or is it?
Well, although the formula is as refined as a stone ax, the album is far from monotonous. For instance, there are tracks with simple structures and faster tempos, like “Misanthropizer”, “Rat Flag”, or Lead Transfusion (I'd highlight the slow gallop in the last third in the latter track... brutal!); but there are also truly chaotic and slow tracks, like the gut-wrenching “The Gurges”, or “Off Switch”, which reminded me to the Darkthrone classic “The Hordes of Nebulah”... but it's more savage. Everything is savage in this work. This album didn’t just
want to be heavy—
it truly is!
I’ve always loved the "simple but great" things in life, and this applies to my musical taste as well. Perhaps that’s why Iron Monkey’s music appeals to me so much, because it possesses that raw instinct that’s so difficult to capture, but you can just feel that it’s
good... and this album is brutal and good.
