Have you ever sat back and actively thought about the most horrific and perverse things that could cross your mind and reflect in satisfaction over what you imagined? Me, neither. I have enough manic bullshit from everyday life and current events to keep me occupied with terrible visions that I don’t need an extra exercise in that type of thing. Also, I don’t have a productive outlet to release the trauma.
It’s safe to say the two blokes who inhabit Blight House—vocalist Frank Lloyd Blight and multi-instrumentalist Frank Owen Gorey, most likely not their birth names, but who knows?—have participated in that very thing, and from the sounds of their new record “Blight the Way,” they’re more likely to handle such insanity than someone like me. The band’s second record and follow-up to 2018’s maniacally titled “Summer Camp Sex Party Massacre,” the duo uses 10 insane tracks to plaster you with their brand of death metal and grind that’s gruesome, utterly ridiculous, sometimes hilarious, and always devastating. They aligned with Syrup Moose Records, a relatively new label that is steadfastly anti-fascist and is putting out a lot of tremendous records and bands we hope to feature here regularly from this point forward. But let’s start here.
“Dismembers Only” rips open with gruesome growls, the playing slithering and waylaying, sooty and doomy visions clouding your mind. Ugly and beastly power erupts, the muck collects, and everything comes to a fittingly ugly end. “Cryptid Cutie” mauls as the growls sicken, the playing trudging and making your footing impossible. The splattering continues as a manic pace cuts through as whispery growls send chills. “Florida Man Hails Satan” lands with retching growls and swampy, steamy guitars that make you feel gross inside. “The devil went down to Florida looking for a soul to steal,” Blight howls, slightly changing the lyrics to a relatively well-known country song, guitars go off, and guts are strewn about the place. “Too Ugly to Live, Too Dumb to Die” just trucks, howls punishing, the snarling playing twisting your brain. Glumi UwUhammer’s dream-state calls elevates strangeness, then the pace slows, but the heaviness doesn’t calm, growls crackle in mud, and everything sifts off into the clouds. “Moms Away II – Dad’s Bod” opens with a goddamn Family Feud clip, and from there everything smashes and spatters, growls curdle, and the blood flows freely.
“Bible-Belt Baby Buffet” unloads with buzzing guitars and growls slathering, the repeated cries of, “Baby buffet!” chewing into your psyche. Religious ranting samples slide behind the coiling bass and the muscular mashing, ending in complete psychosis. “Death Will Not Be Enough” mangles with deathly strikes, slowly scarring, then igniting and destroying. Growls gurgle as the guitars smear, exploding and fading into a total hellscape. “Grassquatch” is fucking ridiculous in the best way. Bugs chirp as we head into crushing force, thick bass lines, and repeated cries of, “Grassquatch!” Guitars heat up and the force bludgeons, the sooty assault making things feel grimy and creepy. “Walpurgis Date-Night” twists spinal cords, delivering humid violence and disorientation. Guitars smoke as the pace trudges, slowly fading into madness. “Acephalophilia III – Hopelessly Headless for You” closes the record by crushing with merciless devastation, the drums turning rock into dust. UwUhammer’s wail returns and sends chills down your spine, hypnotic jolts loosen screws, and everything is swallowed into a strange echo.
Blight House embody the idea that there are some things you have to hear to believe, and “Blight the Way” is a record that’s plenty brutal but also delightfully bizarre. The music on its own would be enough to merit recommendation, but the batshit insane horror elements and spastic psychosis takes it to a completely different level. This is a great time, a brutal band and album that can turn your stomach and punish you mentally and physically at the same time.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/blighthouse
To buy the album, go here: https://syrupmooserecords.bandcamp.com/merch
For more on the label, go here: https://www.facebook.com/SyrupMooseRecords
Meat Mead Metal 