Bone Awl - Meaningless Leaning Mess
March 21 2008 at 11:18:11 PM
The Novato boys return with their first full-length record. Much in the vein of the
Not for Our Feet and
Up To Something tapes, the duo of Gnashes Teeth and Crushes Teeth wield drums and guitar in rusted permutations of punk and minimalist black metal: A scrap heap ensemble that provokes and finally overpowers. It's repetitive and unconcerned, second-hand and beginning again. The only major difference now is they’ve replaced the stills of Artaud’s disembodied head with dark cathedrals, faceless puppets, and excerpts from Robert Chambers’ early book of weird,
The King in Yellow. Voegtlin calls their music the first you can “drink, fight, and fuck to,” in the space of one day. To be sure, the inner sleeve’s advice to "try and be still" is about as reassuring as it would be if heard on the Satyricon tour bus. And from Oi! to Ildarn, you know all the musical comparisons already. Unlike their hermetic forbearer, however, Bone Awl’s crude marches roll outside of the wreckage, skillfully incorporating the aftermath back into song. Their comparatively thoughtful, systemic drum patterns and harmonic rakes are not metaphors for some primordial darkness. Nor or they the voice of builders, but of a wrecking crew razing speaker fragments down into the dirt, migraines ringing on afterward.
[Todd DePalma]
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