D.A.M.N. +3

Hostility is the name of the game in sludge metal. Whether through bludgeoning riff cycles, skin-peeling feedback, suffocating guitar tones, or just a sheer level of noise and reckless abandon in the recording, this is music that projects hostility towards the listener, towards life in general, and towards music itself. Greenmachine's D.A.M.N. fits this extremely well. It's an example of what happens when the music itself wants to fight you. The riffs are the punches and kicks thrown, the fast pace of it is the rushing feeling one gets from being in a fight, the feedback and thick tone are the horrible, haggard feelings you'll have afterwards from the injuries you just sustained, and the screamed vocals are all the pained thoughts racing through your head and the shouts ringing out of this figurative fight. And while this album is plenty groovy, you'll find that this only serves the purpose of making the music contained on it hit all the harder, as these guys manage to deliver some of the most forceful sludge Japan has to offer.

And by forceful, I also mean downright irreverent and exquisitely excessive. These guys blast away at any notion of reserve or politeness with the very first notes of this thing. It's not uncommon to hear the recording max out and peak while listening to this, along with the distinct peeling sound of the feedback. And with this density of sound combined with this many fight grooves and titles like "Cunt Maniac", things are bound to get wild. The musical violence that's central to D.A.M.N. is its biggest appeal, as this is the perfect haze of hate for breaking traffic laws or starting moshpits to the chunky, but also fast-paced sound of it all. It has a lot of the same kind of hostility you'd hear out of more combative sludge bands like Buzzoven and Iron Monkey which Greenmachine do their best to match and almost outdo them. Because when sludge gets fast like it does on here, especially with "On", "Cunt Maniac", and the title track "D.A.M.N.", it tends to carry most of its gravity and make for especially riveting and overwhelming rushes of pure noise. This creates a very satisfying and adrenalizing experience that makes throwing yourself around seem like the logical thing to do.

For a Japanese band named after a Kyuss song, you wouldn't expect this much mayhem, but I got mayhem in multiples with D.A.M.N. It's a fine piece of positively bruising sludge that's great for those of us who like our downtuned filth to come with some speed. This also brings enough feedback, riffage, and intensity to really do some damage. If you like your sludge when it's beating you to a bloody pulp, then I can see you getting a real kick out of D.A.M.N. With all of this being noted, I have to say that this is still a very fun album despite all of the hostility and Greenmachine do an excellent job of dishing out the damage.