Mudbath ‘Red Desert Orgy’ Digital EP 2012

Mudbath 'Red Desert Orgy' Digital EP 2012Mud Baths date back thousands of years and can commonly be found in areas where hot natural springs can combine with volcanic ash and high end spas where rich people fork out a fortune to relax and improve their skin.

Still there is nothing soothing or relaxing about Avignon’s Mudbath

Straight out of France comes this three track, twenty two minute slice of doom tainted sludge designed to remind you of the blackened hearts of humanity.

Influenced by the like of Eyehategod and Electric Wizard this release is both tinged with hardcore and slower than a glacial drift as best showcased on opening track Looserwood.

The first tune is slow, bluesy and monumentally heavy with tortured, screaming vocals that makes it seem like some apocalyptic funeral march that builds to a crescendo that tops off an incredibly absorbing, mesmerising, almost instrumental middle section built around a fantastic solo.

Mudjahideen follows in similar veins, but adds greater nuances with some great vocal interplay and a great shift in pace half way through. The crushing chords strangely remind me of a demented Willy Wonka soundtrack underneath the St Vitus like stomp.

And finally the unpleasantly titled Smells Like Teen Cunt is every bit the smacked out belligerent nightmare it sounds like, a hail of screeching feedback, bonged out down tuned riffing and gargled lyrics, rounded out by the muscular sounds of hardcore.

God knows what the lyrics actually say but you can bet that it tears its influence from the same dark paths as the music.

Red Desert Orgy is a pretty decent release, especially for Mudbath’s debut, it is not breaking any new ground, but it is well executed and given they are hitting the road hard in their homeland it wouldn’t surprise me if we saw them cropping up on more far reaching line ups in the near future.

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Label: Self Released
Website: www.facebook.com/pages/Mudbath/329983097015555

Scribed by: Mark Hunt-Bryden