Tuesday, May 23, 2017

LP Review: Codex Narco by Godhunter

Now this is a fucking powerful record!

Godhunter, from Arizona, Tucson, have been producing stoner sludge for a number of years now, and when several members of the band left at the end of 2015, it seemed like the band's days were numbered, however, guitarist/vocalist David Rodgers, drummer Andy Kratzenberg, and keyboardist Matthew Davis continued on writing new music, changing from their ever present commentary on social injustice to taking a more personal approach and focusing on their own individual struggles, and it's made for a short but stunning new record, combining elements of doom, sludge, post-metal, industrial, and stoner to the perfect degree.

Codex Narco opens with 'A Dread of Some Strange Impending Doom', a two-minute doom opus, setting the tone as a bleak but charging expedition into the band's consciousness, putting you at an unsettling ease before the dark psychedelic stomping riffs of 'Like Glass Under Black Fingernails' hits you with it's doomy gutteral atmospheric ambiance. The vocals are a perfect juxtaposition of gentle heart-wrenching clean aches and aggressive power as the two singers vie for the most poignant delivery. The music is as bleak as it is powerful, and it grips you.

'Our Blood Is Poison' is a dark audio recording that sends a few shivers down your spine before the excellent 'Cocaine Witches & Lysergic Dreams' gives you a glorious wall of noise, dealing with issues of cocaine use shouting "The high isn't forever, and neither is this, the song is just as temporary as the fix" as the industrial stoner doom backdrop drives the music along with incredible power and force. It's a song not to be fucked with.

The band have recruited members of CHRCH, Mountaineer, Demon Lung, Methra, and Thorne to play on this record, and they've impressed to make Codex Narco a short but brilliantly powerful record, a one which even a cover of Tegan and Sara's 'Walking With a Ghost' fits in perfectly. Godhunter have produced a massive sound on a small scale, and it's impact is as heartfelt as it is speaker shattering. Available on cassette from Baby Tooth records, and digitally, we recommend you get this now.

All proceeds from the record go to Planned Parenthood.

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