Slug Guts – Howlin’Gang

Wed 25th May, 2011 in Music Reviews

It never quite felt right that the cover of Slug Guts’ first album, Down on the Meat, saw them dressed in rolled up white shirts, looking more hipster than gloomy. So it’s fitting that on their second and far more sharp-shooting release, they band grace the cover all decked in black.

That’s not to say that Howlin’ Gang is intensely darker than their debut, though. It just seems that the Brisbane band have got their shit together this time around. Where Jimi Kritzler growled (quite literally) all over the first album, bassist James Dalgleish’s baritone feeds suitably menacing Birthday Party/ Interpol feel – despite Kritzler’s known distaste for Nick Cave. There’s still a clear influence from Australian punk bands past. A recently recorded Lubricated Goats cover doesn’t make the cut on here, but the fact it’s been recorded gives confirmation that the band are (at least) aware of their genre’s predecessors.

On almost every track, Dalgleish’s weighty basslines add as much to the band’s new sound as the change in singer. Kritzler’s guitar splinters against the brooding bass, with spikes of noise rising as Dalgleish unperturbedly continues into each chorus as if it were just another verse.

Opener murky Howlin’ stands out amongst what are arguably very similar sounding songs. Following it, there’s a slew of songs – Hangin’ in the Pisser and Cold Bones, mainly – that also rate as quality songs. Closing with Angie, a garage pop tune more likely to be found on a Twerps release, we’re left not with the prickly guitars and baritone slurs, but with a jangly guitars and a male-female duet. Long time friend Angie Bermuda (of Circle Pit) helps deliver a strange album closer.

Like many of Interpol’s releases, there’s a feeling on Howlin’ Gang that this is an album of good songs that string together to make a great album. This whole is greater than the sum of its parts.