Vat Of Fat / …as the tide consumes ‘The Grimm Truth’ Split 12″ 2005

Vat Of Fat / ...as the tide consumes 'The Grimm Truth' Split 12" 2005‘The Grimm Truth’ is the debut release from relatively unknown label Bay Area Thrash Records, it features 2 of the UK’s up & coming Doom bands who deliver us 1 track each of torturous Mournful Doom.

First off we have Nottingham based Vat Of Fat with their crushing 19 minute epic ‘In the Caustic Grip of Winter Nothing Beautiful Remains’, as the record starts spinning, The Brothers GRIMM soon greet you after an eerie intro to their heavy & distorted downtuned Grimness! The entire track is predominantly structured around a main riff which ebbs its way through the distained madness of thick slabs of low end bass, heavily distorted guitars and punishing cymbal heavy drums and it’s quite amazing to hear the intense wall of sound this two piece manage to create! The deep, growled and often ghost like vocals add to the whole atmosphere of their sound, giving them a slightly sinister feel and just as you think the track (may be) coming to an end, it creeps back into life with some subtle guitar and disturbing samples, which in a way reminded me of GGFH (mainly for how sinister it felt!) before the full force of Vat Of Fat hits you once again!

Turn over and Lancaster’s …as the tide consumes offering ’21:12:2012′ creeps into life with an almost experimental Hawkwind meets Isis soundcape that slowly forms into the main crux of the track, which, by around 5 mins in, reaches it’s full maturity with some seriously heavy guitar & percussion and even though this 3 piece are without a bass player, they still manage to create a wall of heavily distorted sound. Vocal wise we’re exposed to Sam’s gut wrenching & tormented higher pitched screams which change to deep guttural growls as the mood dictates, as throughout the tracks 17 minutes, musically it treads various paths from out right Heavy Mournful Doom to more emotional Neurosis/Isis inspired passages which, for such a young band, they certainly show a lot of maturity with their ability and feel of their song writing.

Overall, an excellent record from 2 very promising UK Doom bands, sadly the sleeve notes are a little on the thin side (well more or less none existed if the truth be known) but this really doesn’t detract from the listening experience, so if your into the likes of Sunno))), Moss, Buried At Sea etc you should try and get hold of this limited to 500 copies slab of vinyl, which also came with a handy CDR of both tracks!

Label: Bay Area Thrash Records
Vat of Fat: www.myspace.com/vatoffat
…as the tide consumes: www.myspace.com/asthetideconsumes

Scribed by: Lee Edwards