Sam Black Church

The Dark Comedy (Wonderdrug)
by Scott Hefflon

By far the best (and longest) Sam Black Church record yet. Notorious (’round these parts at least) for packed, manic live shows (and production that always kinda sounded like a vacuum cleaner), SBC have been a familiar face on the Boston hardcore/metal scene (I’d call it a community, but Boston has more cliques and scene fragmentation than any “major” city I’ve seen, and that goes for ALL genres of music) since they appeared n the early ’90s. With three records on Taang! (the first couple, I think, when Taang! was still in Boston and worked with Boston-related bands – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and The Lemonheads… Perhaps you’ve heard of them?) – Sam Black Church, Let in Life, and Superchrist – and a self-released record now available through Wonderdrug (That Which Doesn’t Kill Us… Makes Us Stronger, an eight-song collection of demos that got them signed to Geffen before legal troubles with Taang! and various restructuring at Geffen nixed the deal), SBC has had a long ride, and the dark mood and scathing humor can be found in various ripping songs on The Black Comedy. From the opening Slayerism to later Kornism, black dirges, funky hops, and the usual assortment of “If Primus mated with Body Count, would it sell?” (by that I mean kinda standard metal riffs made interesting by Jet’s “quirky,” almost “does that fit?” vocal style – yips, howls, growls, shrieks, bellows, warbles, and everything else the human voice is capable of), The Black Comedy is definitely the most varied and best-sounding record SBC have ever done. No small feat for a band held in such high regard in this bottleneck of the woods.
(PO Box 995 Boston, MA 02123)