Poison Dwarf ‘Shit On A Stick’ CDEP 2009

I don’t know about you, but when I hear the name ‘Poison Dwarf’, I immediately think of li’l Juicy Ewing – Charlene Tilton of eighties US mega-soap Dallas. Some of you may think of Tom Cruise, some of you may even be reminded of Wee Jimmie Krankie, but now there’s a new Dwarf on the block and it comes from Huddersfield.

Poison Dwarf are a four-piece sludge band with all of the requisite thudding low-end, sludge guitar feedback scree and inhuman shrieking, formed from the ashes of infamous cider-violence sludge monkeys Crawe, and this four track demo is their first release….well, I say ‘four’ tracks, but the first track is just an extended jokey introduction….and not a very good one at that.

Y’see, this is my major problem with Poison Dwarf – there is an air of half-assedness to them, made worse by the lyrical content of the introduction. Read to the accompaniment of a feedbacking doom- filled sludge riff and delivered as though the text was a historical chronicle, telling the story of the offspring of an evil wizard with a ridiculous name and the journey one of his spawn takes to become known as ‘The Poison Dwarf’……..yeah. I know what you’re thinking. It ruins the whole thing.

Sorry guys, but it brings the whole recording down.

Suuuure there are other issues with their sound – the drumming is a bit clunky and the tracks are a little aimless, but hey, its early days for these boys. Its not ALL doom and gloom (no pun intended – musically it IS all doom and gloom) as their overall sound hangs together well, being admirably feelthy, Justins’ vocals are very good indeed, and the discordant section at the end of the second track ‘My Name Is Mud’ (NOT a Primus cover) is verging on a progressive arrangement. Positive points that bode well for the future, but FOR CHRISTS SAKE, DITCH THE PISS-TAKING. Its adolescent, cack-handed and thoroughly beneath you.

Label: Self Released
Website: www.myspace.com/poisondwarfdoom

Scribed by: Paul Robertson