Seattle Noise Vol. 1 – Review

va-seattlenoise200Seattle Noise Vol. 1

(AVR Music/Good to Die Records)
By Mike Delano

Considering how crazy good Seattle’s NFL team is, I was hoping this compilation would be a real shit show in order to restore some cosmic balance to the world. No such luck. The Good to Die record label has been putting out some dirty, heavy and – for lack of a better word – straight-up “authentic” sounding rock and metal for a few years now, and this 14-song compilation is a great sampler of the fuzzy/furious sounds bubbling under the surface in that land of exotic coffee and artisan cheese.

Seattle Noise Vol. 1 definitely lives up to its title, since most of these bands are just as interested in kicking up a noisy, pleasingly dissonant racket as they are with rocking out. Almost everyone here is screaming at the top of their lungs, from the pure rock fury of Sandrider to the unsettling electronic undercurrents of Crypts, so there’s no chance to catch your breath. (The soothing female vocals on Dust Moth‘s “Handles” might count as a breather, but damn, that drummer is working overtime.) Not to say there isn’t variety, though: the muscular attack of Glose‘s “Thirsty Nurse” sounds like a more ravenous Clutch, while the punk-edged Deadkill deliver a Black Flag-style head butt to the chest with “Grave Matters.”
(www.goodtodierecords.com)