Bone Awl - By Ropes Through Dirt

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 March 20 2008 at 08:07:57 PM

Bone Awl is “He Who Gnashes Teeth” on vocals and guitar and “He Who Crushes Teeth” on drums; perhaps only coincidentally the shared monikers of the goat tandem in charge of powering Thor’s chariot. The duo’s sound, however, is far from coincidence, combining Ildjarn’s “music as violence” premise and the primitive punk of Skrewdriver’s All Skrewed Up. This volatile coupling makes for some great tunes, as “No Crosses Mark This Graveyard” is the first metal song one can “skank,” drink, fight, and fuck to—all within the confines of a single day. A great deal of this cassette recalls Ildjarn’s “Nattens Ledestjerene”—oompah Oi! with Black Label fangs—the title track a case and point with its furious, near surf-guitar riffing over meth’d-out drumming. Vocals are amorphous, uncontrolled paroxysms, sliding across the two-minute expanse of each song like a half-dead black snake on a basement concrete floor. Either piecemeal or in full composition, this is base music, filthy in its greased fundamentals, unmatched in its abandon. Entirely deserving of the “underground” buzz they’ve generated, this is a band to either be rolled over or reckoned with.

[Stewart Voegtlin]

Bone Awl

By Ropes Through Dirt

2005

Worship Him / Klaxon