Desolate Anguish - Trainwreck Sessions Demo 2009

Desolate Anguish have been making a lot of noise out of Knoxville, Tennessee for a while now but still under - appreciated and unknown to most people. A bit of a mystery really as they make some good chaotic shredding noise but also have a doom edge. This review is for their 2009 demo "Trainwreck Sessions", a appropriate name for this shredding noise. The first of the three tracks is "All That A Man Has He Will Give To Save His Own Life", a punkish shredding buzzing riff takes up the bulk of the track complete with screeching vocals making a real wall of noise. The repetitive riff doesn't let up till halfway into the track before a more sludge / doom section takes over. While the music slows down, the anger doesn't. The band seems to be pissed off about something and it comes through in their intent to make this track a all out assault of doom / punk noise rock. There is some awesome riffing from guitarist Terrible Tim in the second half of the track, despite the long running time of the track it never loses any momentum. Track two has the lovely title "Japanese Cunt Basher", squealing feedback sets the track in motion before more punkish riffing takes control, the vocals are again angry and viscous. The highlight though is the final track "Traitor", this tune has the most groove of the three tracks but aggression is still the key to the song. Imagine a punk version of Grief then you might be getting close to the sound of Desolate Anguish, they have a lot of slower break-downs within the songs but you wouldn't call this doom, sludge maybe. Desolate Anguish have their own sound and approach to song construction or is that de-construction, take a listen to the sick riff at around the 4 minute mark of "Traitor" for example. At this point i am think of the now split "Boulder", the vocals have that kind of raspy screeching sound. Perfect for Desolate Anguish and a perfect back-up for the bands twisted riffing and tormented angry sound. Overall there is more slow sections than fast ones on this demo but the anger and intense performance puts them in a league of their own. Someone needs to get this band a full length album happening, while its noisy and chaotic, its also catchy in a perverted, twisted way. Check the band out, the three songs on the demo are up on the bands Myspace page. Worth a listen and worth your support. 8/10

www.myspace.com/4desolateanguish