French outfit Mudbath debuted in 2012 with the EP Red Desert Orgy, but the ‘popularity’ of their existence stayed somewhat local. All right, they did perform outside France too, yet they didn’t reach the status they should deserve, not yet. With Corrado Zeller, things will change. I will make sure that at least this review will help to open gates for this quartet.
Corrado Zeller is a recording with three extremely lengthy tracks, in order of appearance lasting for respectively eleven, seven, and eighteen minutes. The material was recorded and mixed by Mathieu ‘Mouffi’ Croux (of Verdun / Sofy Major-fame), and mastered by Collin Jordan at his famous Boiler Room (Bongripper, Wolvhammer, Nachtmystium, Eyehategod, Bible Of The Devil, Apostle Of Solitude etc.). And it will be released worldwide via three labels: Lost Pilgrim Records from France, Desordre Ordonné (Canada) and Russia’s Grains Of Sand. We received this promo-album, by the way, from the Montpellier-based Lost Pilgrim Records.
What these four guys bring is an assault on the brain, on the ear drums, on the whole body and mind thing… Opener Thus I Saw The Destructive Voracity Of An Obsessive Ritual starts somewhat noisy, but after about one minute and a half, Mudbath show their teeth. The composition turns into an ultra-slow (listen to these drums; those who know Necro Schizma will have a clue!) and mega-heavy piece of Sludge / Doom, and then, when the ‘vocals’ join the aural feast, undersigned is totally concentrated. Those ‘voices’ aren’t that unusual anymore within the Sludge / Doom scene, i.e. somewhat sore-blackened screams, minimizing the border once again with the Black metal scene. Though, it is not Black Metal what Mudbath perform, yet it is rather the Post-Hardcore side, using the same type of vocal lines, that injects this stuff. The main riffs are rather repetitive, though multi-layered, which keeps the listener attentive. Yet there is so much to explore, because each half an hour – okay, I am exaggerating, I mean about each couple of minutes – thing do change: other tempo (sometimes even slower than before), other melody, other structure, yet without losing a clear vision on the totality’s result keeping in mind. Sometimes the whole turns somewhat noisier, then again more melodious, but throughout the whole album, heaviness remains the ultimate keyword. Or is it inertia? Or massiveness? Or power? Does not matter, for all these agreeable possibilities are combines unto a mostly strong, convincing result. The opening track, by the way, pretty fluently shades into Shrim Alternative Healing Center, which is faster and more aggressive. It comes with an eerie lead melody and, once again, lots of changes in tempo, structure and melody. This song is the most ‘Post-Hardcore’-oriented one out of the three pieces on Corrado Zeller. Salmonella too, the longest piece, goes in within the very same fabulous trend. For sure it is the most haunting and grim song from this three-track album, less ‘experimental’ than the second composition, and at least as ‘fast’ as the opener. The bleakness comes closer to the blackish current than before, with an emphasis on the Funereal / Depressive sub-genre, yet without being labelled as DSBM at all.