The Pitch: Houston, Texas technical metal crew Slug In The Sun (members of GODS) have been secretly honing their craft since 2017, prepaing to strike. The time has come with the release of this incredible debut EP and their first ever shows. Bufihimat, Car Bomb, Mothman
What I Like: Slug In The Sun don't fall neatly into any one subgenre. Their sound is a hodgepodge of numerous approaches united primarily by their technicality. Mathcore, technical death metal, and grindcore all reside within these walls; each in pretty equal measure. There's even a few groovy Car Bomb-ish djent riffs that show up on "Precious Torment" and "We Share Our Plan." Gotta love the layering of that chunky bass with the ominous guitar leads and sharp snare tone. The riffs on this album are all over the place, calling back to everything from Psyopus to Cryptopsy. I had originally heard this crew described simply as tech death, but the vocals betray that description. Hector's savage shrieking fits more comfortably within grindcore territory if you ask me. But my pretentious nitpicking of genre tags aside, it's this fusion of similar-yet-different approaches that helps Slug In The Sun put that all-important stamp on their style. In other words, if a new song just started playing without warning, I feel like I would instantly know that it was one of theirs. In the ever expanding word of metal, this can be the difference between success and dwindling into obscurity.
Critiques: There's still some mild work to be done in tightening up some of these compositions. While I think that the move to drop some material prior to hitting the stage is a smart one, I can tell that these songs don't have the "we've been touring for over a year sharpening them to a razor's edge" sound. Now that they have a strong foundation to kick things off, I would encourage Slug In The Sun to take their time and build anticipation for future music while testing it out for the audience.
The Verdict: Memoirs of Misfortune is an incredible debut from a band that is certainly going places. With the right level of exposure, I see this becoming an underground classic on par with Inside The Beehive's Drink Bleach, Live Forever or Malthusian's Demo MMXIII. I'll be biting my nails waiting for further material, but again I would prefer Slug In The Sun take their time in doing so. Quality of quantity. Listen and purchase the EP below, and if you're in Texas, catch their first show HERE.
Flight's Fav's: Precious Torment, We Share Our Plan, Jokes On You
- Review by FlightOfIcarus
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