A first impression of this album was: Aeternus or to be more precise, Ares and how he uses his voice. The commanding style of the deep growls appears on Slime in the Current’s debut album as well. Yet compared with the art of the Norwegians the emphasis is more on the guitars here. Nevertheless, also some similarities in the atmospheres and the overall style can be found, so a certain audience who should give this release a try was already identified. When speaking of Aeternus, then both black as well as death metal influences can be referred to. Albums like ‘… and So the Night Became’ as well as ‘Shadows of Old’ can be pointed towards as references, but the song-writing seems to have been taken from the latter one; those expansive and long compositions used by the Norwegians make no appearance here.
Slime in the Current play generally fast and powerful black metal, which comes with a surprising density as well as consistency. Despite the emphasis on a rather high tempo, the band avoided an endless monotony of blast beats. Slower interludes make an appearance in several compositions, while a track like ‘Word is Dead’ reminds on the death doom genre. Retained Hunger to Demoralize, the last track of this album, takes the listener to even more obscure and rather unexpected realms. Did the band ran out of ideas or was there one band member who desperately wanted to have his share on the album as well, but was refused any other spot aside the last one possible? Not only is the music in this composition exceedingly slow, towards the end everything merges together into an indistinguishable noisy something. Quite a weird way to close the album.
Pissed on Resurrectine is a lot of fun and you should really get it; especially if you are fond of the Norwegian band Aeternus. Slime in the Current deliver … and they deliver on a high scale. A lot of really cool riffs and arrangements, thundering drums in the background and a vocalist, whose one weakness is that he sounds too much like Ares, this and nothing else can be found on the debut of the American band. Really recommended.
Are you ready for the Necro Pummel? You damn well better be because on Pissed on Resurrectine Baton Rouge’s Slime in the Current brings it cold, hard and with extreme malice. What a great debut album from a band that formed in 2006, yet whose members have been in “several noteworthy musical projects with over 20 years of creating underground music under their belts.” You can damn sure tell these aren’t rookies making all this ashen black/death metal despondency and devastation. More to the point, Pissed on Resurrectine is 53 minutes of buzzing, bleeding riffage that crosses underground black metal (more USBM than Norwegian) with Celtic Frost and Hellhammer ugliness, including a vocal style that recalls a bleaker, more understated Tom G. Warrior. I’ve got to be careful how I phrase this, but in general terms some of what is heard might also be described as a rotted out, more necro Goatwhore. Listen to “Feast for the Coming Storm” and you’ll hear it. The first couple of listens come off like the intense winds, toxic dust, flying debris, and black rain suffered by thousands in Hiroshima just after the detonation of the atom bomb. The album’s first half in particular is a kind of relentless, punishing crush of swarming buzz riffs. Hell, there’s even a song called “Swarm.” The next few spins – and there will be more spins since this one keeps sucking you back in – reveal more depth and individuality in the songwriting, as evidenced by the quintessential example of the aforementioned Necro Pummel of “Creator of Ruin.” At various points you’ll hear distinct filth-grooves, riff stutters, droning bits, string-bent whines, and dissonant flourishes, all of which are driven by the penetrating, often staccato drumming. The compositional changeups aren’t necessarily in your face, but are no less impacting. A case in point is the rhythmic shift into quick two-beat patterns during “The Coal that Burns.” When the violence does lessen it is only to make way for a slower, more sinister type of torturous burn, as exemplified by the descent into Hell that is the eight and half minutes of album-closer “Retained Hunger to Demoralize.” It is the death knell of humanity, the confiscation of man’s last breath. When it is all said and done, the hellishly harrowing trip into the abyss taken by the listener on Pissed on Resurrectine ends in piles of charred bodies and cities reduced to rubble. No matter how repulsive the aftermath, you’ll keep crawling back for more. Is that pathetic? Nah, it’s just dedicated.
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