Primitive Weapons - The Shadow Gallery
Primitive Weapons
The Shadow Gallery
Primitive Weapons are a collective of Long Island hardcore veterans pounding out a relatively esoteric take on the weathered ground between metal and hardcore. The few record collectors likely to be familiar with the band's heritage (cult favorites like On The Might Of Princes and Milhouse) probably won't be surprised by how many rules the band bend on their first “full-length” (a sweaty mess spread across seven tracks and 25 minutes). But they and everyone else should nonetheless enjoy the fierce and grinding ruckus on The Shadow Gallery, possibly to their own detriment—a mere listen or two will probably mean an instant bangover the morning after.
Take Deadguy's burly, mid-tempo chaos, dice up the spaces between with tribal, Liars-esque drumbeats (opener “Good Hunting”), creepy melodic passages (“Quitters Anthem,” closer “Black Funds”), and a cacophony of swirling riffs (“Big Chief”) and you have The Shadow Gallery in a nutshell. There's something about the band's delivery of that sound that feels like it could appeal as much to the older, embittered metal guy behind the counter at Generation Records as it could the college senior that swears by Norma Jean's O God, The Aftermath. It's a dual pull that makes the anthemic “The Death Of Boredom” (both scratchy and catchy) and the more vocally dissonant, snarling “Or Do Ideas Have You” work well in tandem.
The most glaring issue with The Shadow Gallery is its lack of individual cohesion: Any isolated part from any one track could likely be placed somewhere else on the album, and the listener would not likely be the wiser. Still, credit's due: The Shadow Gallery is a fresh presentation of an old sound in a concise package, and Primitive Weapons carry an appeal that could span the hardcore/metal spectrum.
Prosthetic http://www.prostheticrecords.com
