Whatever happened to Sloth? – 30%
Yakui IX, December 21st, 2015
No, seriously, what the fuck happened with this band? Sloth has (from what I can gather, least. The band still seems to exist on the fringe even in the information age) been the one-man project of Dominic Kaveliski since around 1994. Their discography was expansive even before the ‘band’ went off the deep end in 2012 and started to release monotone noise singles every day. Most of these releases were splits with other bands, and some bogglingly high-profile ones at that, too (they have splits with Noothgrush, Curropted, and goddamn Nunslaugher).
While I’d like to say I’m reviewing their 2000 compilation because it gives a great look at the many different styles the project has tackled over the years, because it’s one of the only releases I can actually get a hold of I’m mostly assuming that they chose the best releases to represent their discography. The audio quality jumps somewhat between each song, but there’s never a track when it’s unbearably bad. The mixing throughout the compilation is surprisingly competent considering most of it was probably recorded in Dom’s home. While, for the most part, the songs stick to an up-tempo doom-y sound with the distortion cranked and the riffs bouncy, it’s next to impossible not to give a track-by-track review of ‘It’s Not Our Worst..’ because each song is indescribable in it’s own way.
Not to say there aren’t highlights on the album. The second song, which was recorded specifically for this compilation, is a clear parody of the mallcore bands that were oh so popular at the time. While jokes like this have been done to the point that it hardly elicits a chuckle anymore, there’s just something genuine in the simplicity of the joke and the delivery that makes it really works on this song. It never limits itself to making fun of any particular band or fanbase, instead just allowing itself to poke fun at lyric cliches and deliveries. The almost-rap interlude has me rolling every time because of how close to home it hits with Dom’s incomprehensible rambling (“Even though you try to be different and act differently and treat me differently you are just like them. God damn it I hate you!”). ‘Getting Ready for Christmas’ is the polar opposite of the previous track, as while it seems to make fun of low-fidelity black metal with its overuse of samples, hazy production, and alternative procusion, Dominic sounds genuinely angry when shouting the (admittedly comedic) lyrics about someone uses Christmas as an excuse to feed his alcoholism. ‘Lice Hive’ is, without a doubt, the best song on the album, musically. It’s a sludge-tempo song with, crushing production, a blue driven riff, and some actually well-done harsh vocals off a demo(!) that has unfortunately seemed to be swallowed into the void (seriously, I’d love to hear the rest of it, but it’s nowhere). The last track, ‘Iron Larry Hogue’, makes up for it’s demo-quality production with charmingly amateur vocals and a catchy, bouncy bass line.
That unfortunately marks the end of anything worthwhile you’ll get from this release. ‘Human Torch Fireballs You’ (track #4) and ‘Anaconda’ are comprised mostly of atonal sequences of low notes without rhythm, texture, or any atmosphere whatsoever, the latter of which having no backup instrumentation for the majority of its length. There are two songs right at the end of the compilation that are just strange guitar ditties, but they’re both under a minute so they’re hardly worth mentioning. And…that’s it. The compilation is over before you know it. The amount of filler tracks basically equals the amount of interesting songs, but even then, I can’t really say the low-points are worth trudging through. It’s a shame, because some of the material on this release show the ability of Dominic to write great songs with a comedic twist, but the gimmicks out-weigh the entertainment jokes. Only seek this out of you’re as curious as to what Sloth was really about as I was.
rafazardly 