More than half the year burned away before I became seriously worried that 2008 would pass without a laudable metal release. Yes Earth and Boris put out fabulous records, but I mean pure metal, the kind that features slaughter guitar with murdering drums. ‘Will metal be absent from the Armageddon,’ I fretfully pondered? My impatience finally subdued when Athens goliaths Harvey Milk appeared out of the abyss with an oceanic dose of all the vital metal rudiments. Before I list such rudiments, let me first admit my biases; though I come off as a raging hesher, I am quite picky about the type of slaying I slay. Sabbath and Pentagram are my temples, so I like it low and slow and if it’s going to be technical it better be with a slothy-sludge riff, not a throbbing boner solo. Thus, Harvey Milk’s latest release, Life… The Best Game in Town delivers everything: dark and murky riffs, a doom infested atmosphere, an abundance of stoner tempos and enough art metal to make Neurosis weep blood. The double-disc special edition features a slew of Life… demos and a remarkable and almost entirely acoustic interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s, “Seems So Long Ago, Nancy”. Joined by fellow doomster Joe Preston of Earth, Melvins, Thrones, High on Fire and These Arms are Snakes it is no surprise that Life… is so profuse and severe. Not a fluffy cumulous cloud but a black cloudburst that devours the breadth of the sky. Shifting from harmonious lyrics of Christmas and Santa Claus to cavernous chugging, Life… churns with trickery. The variation is fluid, moving effortlessly from vicious sludge metal to cock-rock and from experimentation to stoner metal: creating a free-lineation of unreserved but malevolent profundity.
Bardos Freedoom
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