Review Summary: Heavy Heavy Low Low has managed to release an album as ridiculously disjointed and unfocused as the title implies it would be... and it kicks ass!
Do turtles even have nipples?
Who else loves the taste of tuna fish, peanut butter, and hummus sandwiches?
Heavy Heavy Low Low has a knack for just bothering people. They seem to try too hard to stand out for a lot of people that hate the scene in the first place, and to everyone in the scene, maybe they just stick out a little too much. Either way, the band has fallen into an awkward middle stage where they’ve managed to get equal amounts of hate from both the boundless “underground” blog havens and the scene embracing hipsters.
Being flung into the “mathcore” and neo-nu-wave-grind groupings of the day, along with bands like The Number Twelve Looks Like You, they’ve undoubtedly run into a certain standard of musicianship and technicality that people have come to expect. What we have here though is simply 5 dudes with terrible tattoos looking to have fun, and not really falling into any specific categorization because they do it so awkwardly. So before listening to this band i implore you to step back and ignore those dim-witted expectations. Simply embrace the awkwardness.
Turtle Nipple and the Toxic Shock is an attempt to piss people off, and they’ve managed to do so. I’ve seen countless reviews making my favorite statement about this album: “They’ve even managed to screw up a Black Flag song.” But therein lies the beauty of this album; THEY CAN EVEN MANAGE TO SCREW UP A BLACK FLAG SONG! Heavy Heavy Low Low is at their best on this album, stepping away from the annoying and straightforward pseudo-grind that is shown on
Everything’s Watched..., and have finally embraced writing music without continually breaking down. There are even slight amounts of song structure interlaced in the awkward phrasings of groovy chaos.
First things first, lead vocalist Robert Smith stopped singing like an idiot. It seems over the course of the band’s 2 full lengths (if you’d really call them that) and 3 eps he’s made the progression from classic and cliche screaming, to a yodeling/dying Elvis Presley (under a heavy amount of debilitating sedatives), to his current unique attack of delayed and weary groaning. An emotional, tired yearning is exhibited in Smith’s tearing vocal cords as he sings about psychedelia and waves of paranoia.
That brings me to my next point:
These guys were clearly on drugs. I mean, how else can you describe the thought process behind the “ultraviolet waves and very ugly transparent dolphins” of
Giant Mantis vs. TURT Nip.
The musicianship of this album is perfectly fitting. HHLL proclaimed the goal of this album to be a surf traced, psychedelic rage through the current music scene. The thin and delay ridden sound of an overdriven telecaster contrasts perfectly to a the deep and rumbling bass lines throughout, perfectly represented in
H.D.Eye Hybrid Cyborg’s opening riffs. But most importantly, the unexpectedness of guitar lines that simply bounce off each other leading to drastic time changes and short stutters doesn’t make this unlistenable in the slightest, and unlike their older music,
Turtle Nipple... is far removed from any relation to aggressively spastic grindcore. If anything, this should be embraced for how subdued it feels, steering clear of ever being too unreasonably harsh. Songs like
Is This Your Homework? and
Eagle Mewnadria even exhibit manageably poppy experimentation akin to The Blood Brothers and the artist formally known as Fear Before the March of Flames. The new variance in vocality is interesting too, ranging from Smith’s typical strain, to the Look What I Did esque stuttering of
The Toxic Shock Mountain Blues, to an appearance by Vincent Bennett of The Acacia Strain bearing a typical hardcore vocal utterance, something quite new to the band’s formula.
The short song structure still remains, as HHLL is apt to simply get to the point and avoid the hesitant middle ground. And although they’ve managed to bring many new aspects to the table, the simple arpeggiated and dissonant chord interworking is as vibrant as ever. To a degree, each song retains the band’s original sound but with far more focus on melody and progression. The chug-chug-chugging no longer remains unresolved, and is now simply a means of transition between melodies.
Granted, the hatred for this band is not unmerited, for they’ve managed to take the white belt grindcore scene and poppify it even further. However, people need to stop finding means of labeling this and comparing it to what they think appropriate, for it simply doesn’t fit in the placement it has been given. It won’t be “br00t41” enough for Pig Destroyer fans, it won’t be technical enough for the #12LLU scene, nor will it be arranged quite delicately enough for those Beethoven fans out there. Don’t think of this album as grindcore, and don’t think of it as “mathcore” (what the hell is that, anyway?) so that it may be seen in a new light. For all of those willing to give it a listen and ignore its reputation (all 3 of you), enjoy the awkwardness, the dissonance, the melody, and the fun.
Listen To:
Giant Mantis vs. TURT Nip
H.D.Eye Hybrid Cyborg
The Toxic Shock Mountain Blues
what! how could u say thatThis Message Edited On 11.16.08
