Fister/Teeth - Split (2016)

This split brings Missouri and California together in the name of doom, death and sludge metal. Sounds promising to me just in that regard. It's not a very long split (roughly about thirteen minutes) but these things usually aren't. 

The first act we have is Missouri based doom/death/stoner and sludge metallers, Fister. They come on strong with some extremely pungent nodes, proving the strength of Kenny Snarzyck's bass work as well as Marcus Newstead's (this guy used to play in The Lion's Daughter) extremely melodic, slightly depressive and all around powerful lead work. Opener “We All Die Tonight” actually features one hell of a solo stuffed right into the middle of it. When I say one hell of a solo, I literally mean one hell of a fucking solo, folks. That's the kind of thing that made me take notice. Only problem is that there's about a few seconds after that with what I think is just filler with no real point, unless it was lyrically called. Even so, (and this is nearly a damn first for me) it kind of kills the impact of Newstead's solo work, which should have ended the piece.

California's Teeth are a completely different animal. There's still the doom and death metal elements, but it feels like they wanted to beef these extremities with the magic of post metal. Justin Moore and Erol Ulug (Apparently that's his real name. Perhaps they have a literal cave troll in their band?) both makeup the guitar and vocal end, which seems to meld together to form this inhuman and rather gruff semblance. There's a little bit of crystalline psychosis to these pieces as well, making the approach sound sometimes pretty, but most often insane. To be dreadfully honest, the soundscape is rather creepy and unnerving for an act of this nature, which I find amazing as the hairs prick up on the back of my neck. Two songs and less than seven minutes is more than enough to tell me that there's something very freaky about the music that these guys play. They're the definite winner of the split for me, regardless of the fact that both bands do a great job. This is what I'd consider a great split, just kind of wish these things were a bit longer.

(3 Tracks, 13:00)

8/10