Friday, December 11, 2009

NOOTHGRUSH - ERODE THE PERSON (1999)

You know what I hate about "doom metal"? Those shitty, uncreative bands who play slow just for the sake of playing slow, completely lacking dynamics or ideas and believing that each note is just so fraught with importance that it needs a full five minutes all to itself. Fuck that.
You know what I love about doom metal? Bands like Noothgrush (see also: Grief) who are just so depressing, fucked up, and full of rage that they have to play slow, just to fit all of their angst and hatred between the notes and drumbeats. Their pain is palpable, their playing is sloppy, and their songs contain actual, discernable RIFFS.

Noothgrush were from San Jose, CA, and existed from 1994-1999. They were named after a creature from Dr. Seuss' There's A Wocket In My Pocket ("there's a Noothgrush on my toothbrush") and had a tendency to write songs about obscure Star Wars lore ("Kashyyyk", "Jundland Wastes"). They also had a rockin' female drummer (Chiyo), which is way too rare in metal these days. Erode The Person is something of a 'Greatest Hits' collection culled from their brief 5-year career, featuring tracks from about a million split albums they put out with bands like Black Army Jacket, Sloth, Deadbodieseverywhere, Corrupted, and Agents of Satan. To further confuse the matter, an entirely unrelated version of Erode The Person appeared in 2001, featuring a completely different track listing and cover art. This is the 1999 version.
Furthermore, the eighth track on Erode The Person, "Dianoga" (another Star Wars reference), has the best opening sample I've ever heard. Anywhere. Ever.

Download HERE


Noothgrush on Myspace

2 comments:

The Goodkind said...

Hmmmm this is really good. Since I've been listening to it I have been sitting in the coffee shop at work studying and three times, parents have come in and picked up the Seuss book and read it to their kids.
Too bad all their other albums are unavailable, thanks Mr. Cobras.

RyGar said...

Hmmm, I didn't know that there were two "Erode..." Cd's. That explains why I didn't recognize the tracks on the new one, as I had a cassette dub of the original that crapped out a few years back. Also, I didn't know that Discogs included info for samples used in each track. Well placed samples really make an album for me. Probably one of the reasons I became so obsessed with Dystopia. Thanks for the albun, it brings back memories of sitting in my bedroom as a teenager, ripped on Santa Cruz's finest weed, lights out, smoking cigs out the window, drinking Weideman's and chucking the cans into the neighbor's yard... which actually sounds pretty boring, but the right music made it an amazing time.