Wednesday, October 3, 2012

G&P Review: Wage Garnisher

Wage Garnisher
Suckin' on Silicone
Bandcamp

You know that move lots of bands like to pull at the start of an album where the music is all muffled and distant for a bit before it explodes into the foreground? That's what Wage Garnisher are like, minus that cathartic foreground exploding thing. Simply put, Suckin' on Silicone's hardcore and grind sounds garbled. It's distant, flat and emotionally removed. And unfortunately, these are apparently the re-recorded versions because the originals from the band's split with SMG sounded worse.
While a interesting trio of singers keep things shifting on the vocal front, the music aspect just isn't being done any favors. The guitar is absolutely unintelligible, a faint static hiss with the exception of the weird buzzing notes of "IV." Case in point, first song "Bridge Burner" sounds like it's swimming through a pool swamped with molasses. It's the incarnation of the slow motion feeling you get in nightmares when you're being chased only without the suspense.
Like I said before, the Cerberus-headed vocal triumvirate are the real stars. Don't like a particular style (the inarticulate, monotone gurgle at the end of "II" were full of sound and fury, signifying nothing), just wait for it to change. The pissed, rasping snarl of "I" was a particular highpoint to the whole affair.
Even though Suckin' on Silicone only requires four minutes out of your life, it's a tough one to recommend. That said, it sounds like somebody has stopped garnishing their wages and they could afford a better studio session for their split with Lt. Dan. Go check that out instead.

1 comment:

Perpetual Strife said...

funny that they did a split with SMG because this is how I feel about that band; bad, flat, uninteresting recording.