GHOSTLIMB AMPUTATE HEADS WITH BEARING AND DISTANCE
Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 10:00am by Vince Neilstein
Just because it’s short doesn’t mean it can’t kick your fucking ass. Eighteen and a half minutes after I started listening to their new album Bearing & Distance (Level Plane Records), it ended; so I simply listened to it again.
Through those 18 minutes and the course of 15 tracks — 5 of which are under a minute and the longest of which is 2:08 — California’s Ghostlimb proved that they’re doing something really fucking cool and different. I can’t quite put a finger on their entire palette of influences because there’s a really strong hardcore flavoring, and frankly I just don’t have the musical vocabulary to go there. But fuck it, at the risk of making myself look really stupid and non-versed in the history of punk and hardcore (this is true), I’ll try: Minor Threat, Bad Religion (on coke), Paint It Black, and even NYC’s Wetnurse, but with big, clear production Matt Bayles would be proud of and a whack-you-in-the-nuts metal sensibility that’s also hard to place. Think a faster, non-stop alcohol-fueled Bronx, blending anthemic punk chord progressions through highly overdriven Marshalls and some dude passionately screaming his fucking lungs out on top of it as if he had a fist shoved up his ass and singing these songs was the only way to get it out.
Find out for yourself and check out Ghostlimb on MySpace.
-VN
“some dude passionately screaming his fucking lungs out on top of it as if he had a fist shoved up his ass and singing these songs was the only way to get it out.”
I had never heard of this band before. When I first heard the tracks i said “i’ll bet good money that this is graf orlock with the guitarist’s vocals”. And I was right!
Justin is a fuckin’ riff machine.
Thr graf orlock show in Puerto Rico was the most violent show I have ever attended.
horns up
There are so many albums out there that have no business being longer than 20 minutes, so it’s cool when bands recognize this and just get rid of all the filler. Another example of a kickass abbreviated album, A Diamond for Disease by Arsis.