I was lucky enough to be privvy to the pre-release tracks from the new CHUD album.... Chud have been treading the boards around town for a while now in Canberra (Australia) and have gained a pretty good name for themselves around the east coast of this country. This is their 3rd Release.
I'm going to be honest the style of production and the deep down-tuned guitars (I'm told by Chud main-man, Chris that they used 9 string guitars on the recording) made this initially rather hard to wrap my head around the sound as the guitars occupy the space previously held by bass guitars and the bass? Well that occupies some low frequency subterranean hell which if played loud enough could probably involuntarily loosen ones lower sphincter .... The vocals are angry and hateful, sitting somewhere between black metal and Max Cavelera ... A very unique mix. By the third song into the recording my ears attuned into it, and it got much easier to listen to and digest.
The sound is cold and harsh, it kinda reminds me a bit of another Australian band, The Amenta and maybe some Godflesh, and maybe some Nailbomb... but its really hard to pin down the influences or what might have created such a harsh and hostile sound... but by about the 6th song I had really started to dig the sound and started to realise what the band was trying to create, though I find it really hard to put into words. Chud is like a down-tuned nightmare, industrial styled sludge core if that makes any sense. The songs have more of a percussive feel to it rather than a melodic feel
While I'm hardly an expert on this genre of music, I do feel the lads have created something original. Material this "subsonic" for lack of a better word must have been pretty hard to record as well... I can only guess what frequencies the bass guitar work occupies.
One track does up the tempo a little right at the end and that is "Eat You Alive" with a more "rocking" feel.... if such a word can be used to describe it....
Overall I have to say once I gave this one a fair chance it really did grow on me and by the end of the album I was keen to give it another spin to see what else I could get out of it.
Again this album is NOT for everyone, but give it an open minded listen and you might be pleasantly surprised (as I was).... I'm looking forward to seeing them live again!
Check out a mix of various CHUD songs for yourself on Reverbnation/facebook:
https://www.reverbnation.com/chudmetal/song/26118263-ruthless
https://www.facebook.com/chudmetal
and keep an eye out on this page for more news on CHUD!
http://www.metalmixtape.com
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