This town is dead, preachers without faith feeding the homesick and the homeless with a strange fruit to fill the void we all stuck in living as Einzelgänger captured in this desolate wasteland...

STARVE - "WASTELAND"
("Badger Records"; LP & MP3-Download):

I've already posted a video of this dutch band, STARVE, some days ago to make them known to all of ya out there, and here now comes the already back then announced review of their current record release, "WASTELAND". (For what I know it's their full length debut record, before that only a four track demo tape came out- all four songs you find in overworked versions also on this record here-, and they are currently working on a new 7'' release to follow up "WASTELAND" hopefully pretty soon.) It was released as a limited LP on colored vinyl (coming in several different colors) and also as an official and by the band (and the label) authorized MP3-Download-Version. I didn't know STARVE before this release here, and my search (if not hunt) after the LP was totally without success, and so now I review this release in the MP3-Download-Version and I will give you also the Download link at the end of this review. And if you get the chance to grab that damn LP, then just fucking do it!!! And maybe grab two and send me one... There was a time when I was some sort of pretty much deep into quite a bit of this whole Sludge (Core) stuff with great acts like EYE HATE GOD (legends) and other ones, and also Doom (Metal) I more or less always knew to like and listen to, and even Stoner (Rock) never really wasn't my bottle of beer at all there had always also been some truly good acts coming out of this music genre, so you see, some part of me always used to have a fascination for the 'downward spiral' side of heavy music, and when I first listened to this record here I was totally blown away and knocked off my feet. (And I'm it still.) STARVE, damn it, what an awesome great band!!! They do play something I would name Sludge but you can maybe also call it Doom (even it's Sludge, haha;-)...), and if ya like this types of music then make sure that you know STARVE because then they will totally be 'your band' (and those of you who really know to love truly heavy and evil Stoner will also get their costs cashed back in). Ultra-heavy and über-hard guitar riffing, a thundering drum work and totally distorting bass playing, crowned by the damn emotional and extreme vocals, all played in a straight forward going way of sound and style, and all in the down paced 'doomy' tempo of Sludge that will grab you without any kinds of remorse and take ya down, further and further, like a drug fix shooting through your blood in your heart and brain and infecting and contaminating you so that you just fall deeper and deeper in a hole of that you can't see the bottom and you aren't able to creep out again, like a drug that's taking you down and down and down and not pushing you up, this is music that you takes you down, knocks you down and not letting you get up again, and it's so incredible intense and heavy, it's through and through just nothing but brilliant and fascinating, point and fact!!! A fantastic record!!! Also they work with some very suprising Blues and Classic Rock and also some few (early) BLACK SABBATH reminiscences that show even more how damn good STARVE really are. Also they do clever work with totally deformed or sheer suffering vocals and totally suprising guitar leads from time to time, and the whole record respectively music is like a with heroin contaminated swamp, bubbling and boiling, waiting to embrace and infiltrate you and not letting you loose again. Great!!! (I think I said that already, right?!?) And the songwriting is just incredible strong and grapping and exiting, so don't think that this slow pace of all the songs means that they would sound the same, no, no, no, STARVE hold a lot of suprises and great exciting rhythms in store, just listen to this record, ah, and by the way the atmosphere is just incredible tight and strong and overpowering that you won't stand against it for too long. It's great, because STARVE do match up with New Orleans (if ya know about Sludge ya maybe know what I mean, if not, hm, then better get known to it pretty soon), and that's really amazing. My personal favorite is "STRANGE FRUIT", it's just so fantastic and so incredible intense, hell yeahr, even if you maybe can only hardly name it a song in every 'traditional' or 'usual' sense of the word and term song. But also every and each single other song is just incredible strong, and I hope that STARVE will give us more of this and this pretty soon. Also some great and very interesting lyrics they do offer us here, the production sound is a phenomenal one, and at least the frontcover looks great (more I can't tell ya 'bout the artwork), yes, and I'm still searching for at least one of the LP's if there are still some of them floating around because this MP3 Downlaod is just not enough for me. Check this brilliant band out and get this record!!! One of the best records of 2010 that will be hard to beat also in 2011. Ah, by the way, is this band here, STARVE, a vegan band?!? Not that it would be important, I'm just asking for it (even myself;-)...). Great!!! (10 of 10 points)

(Contact: http://www.myspace.com/starvemotherfuckers)

(Download: http://starve.bandcamp.com/album/wasteland)