Saturday 23 March 2013

Primitive Man - P//M (EP Review)

P//M cover art

Album Type : EP
Date Released : 26/2/2013
Label : BandCamp
P//M, EP tracklisting: 
1) Western Eyes (Portishead Cover) 3:45
2) The Holes In The wall, Are Like Holes In My Fucking head 10:40
3) A Song For Denver 2:24
 
Bio
 
PRIMITIVE MAN features within their ranks current and formers members of Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire, Reproacher and Death Of Self. In a 4.5/5 review About.com writes: “Scorn drips with depravity and disgust throughout. Their strings-falling-off-the-guitar down tuned filth could cause earthquakes or crumble mountains. When in high(er) gear, the punishing riffs pound with the power of a ...ten ton battering ram, knocking the wind from your lungs. Scorn is no doubt one of the most brutal, unsettling and uncompromising albums you will hear all year.” American Aftermath calls Scorn “one of the heaviest debuts by any band I have ever heard in all of my days,” noting that the offering, “isn’t your run of the mill bong-ripping doom metal that has been done a million times. This is the actual feeling of ‘doom’ in audio form. Scorn will instill feelings of dread and fear in you and you will love every freaking minute of it.” Cvlt Nation champions band’s “devastatingly crushing and austere slab of blackened, sludgy doom,” while Metal Insider boasts, “PRIMITIVE MAN deliver the kind of doom metal reminiscent of a vast, apocalyptic wasteland where the only inhabitants left are too busy committing acts of lethal brutality against one another to care about things as trivial as beauty or art. This band has created the musical equivalent of survival for survival’s sake. There is nothing pretty here. There are no moments of peacefulness or lucidity.”
Line up
ELM
JC
IS


Review
 
Right, let's not fuck around here - we loved 'Scorn', and the blog recently featured a frankly amazing interview with the band. Is 2013 the year of Primitive Man? Just maybe. So we decided to feature them some more. You're welcome.
Submitted for your approval: their self-titled EP.
Bands that are not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves should be applauded, so it's no surprise that PM have the bravery to cover Portishead. 'Western Eyes' is of course no shrinking trip-hop violet; it's had the full doom makeover, as expected. It sounds like they took lead pipes to the bodywork. Totally harrowing in their trademark style and heavy as hell, it's a cacophony of noise that reverberates around the inside of your skull and refuses to leave. It honestly sounds like a fight between a trash can and a whale song CD. Immense is not the word.
'The Holes in the Walls are Like Holes in My Fucking Head' isn't just a possible contender for heavyweight song title champion of the year, it's also deeply confusing. That title would suggest the soundtrack to the end of the world, but the reality is quite different. It's a sombre and quiet deal, very experimental and unnerving.  Slight feedback comes in and out of tangible existence, and the whole 10 mins+ is all atmosphere and loathing. Adding to the queasiness is the fact that the entire EP is instrumental - you really wish it would say something, just so you could identify it as being human at least.
And so it all tails off with 'A Song for Denver', which is just plain horrible. Truly horrible. Shrieking white noise for 2 and a half minutes, like Merzbow being looped backwards through an evil washing machine. Brilliant, if not scary.
If you loved 'Scorn' (and if not, then what the hell is wrong with you?) don't expect a like-for-like trade on content here. What this is however, is a great accompaniment to that release; the flip side of the coin. Just as demented, but a slightly different animal. Primitive Man are no doubt going to explode this year. Listen to this and your head might join them.

Words : Matt Fitton

Check the links for more info on the band here. Record is available as Name Your Price here.  You buy their record Scorn if you're in Europe here, UK here and USA here you can stream this beast from bandcamp.  You can read our review of Scorn here.