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Album Review

Årabrot
Solar Anus Fysisk Format

Article written by Matt H - Oct 10, 2011

Arabrot - Happy Happy, Joy Joy

A bit of Norwegian metal eh? Why not? Might be a giggle. A bit of sludge and screaming. What’s this though? A glance at the credits shows that Årabrot have brought Steve Albini in. Now, he likes to go on about how he’s just a recording engineer, not a producer stamping his personality on a record. But you don’t get Albini in if you want a sludgy sound. And so it proves. Whilst there’s a suitably Sabbathesque gloom and heaviness to the relentless cycling riffs, they’re clear as a bell and the whole has an uncommon lightness of touch. Even the vocals run a gamut, a familiar sore-throated troll-scream augmented by Nomeansno-style punk holler and even theatrically declaimed lyrics in some places (at one point on the opening track, the Scandinavian emphases oddly recalling the Hives’ Pelle Almqvist).

Of course it’s not always easy to discern what they’re on about and the likes of French transgressives like Bataille and Lautreamont do crop up a fair amount in misanthropic stuff like this. But it can’t be every metal band that goes so far as to namecheck Melody Nelson. If the odd detail above might has piqued your interest, be warned. This is a great record. But definitely a metal record, if one that reminds you of the harder core bands the rampaged the very outskirts of the US alternative and grunge scenes 20-odd years ago. Not one to ease your way into the genre either. If you’re already there though, you won’t go far wrong with this.

Links:
http://www.arabrot.com/
http://www.tigernet.no/shop/fysiskformat.php
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ÅRABROT/10568682679?ref=ts