They hit you like a shovel, already caked in mud and blood and piss, slamming your brain. Bottom basement guitars rooted down deep with drum and bass rhythm and riff on top of heavy riff on top of heavier riff. Based in the love of all things metal and good, born out of the Sabbaths, and Panteras, and Soundgardens, and Melvins of the world. They are dirty, fast, drop D, pounding, pulsating, back to basics, metal up your ass, all that is beautiful and disgusting about metal that we love.
‘An Old Friend’ opens up ‘Lovelessness’ and has no reverence to your need for codling. It thrives on your hate and anger and fist pounding frustration. If you are at the edge you have just been given a hearty push as you hear the maniacal laugh in your descent. Bison B.C. creates layers of patterns that have a texture of grime and excrement polished with a bit of smut for good measure. Reminiscent of the works of Mastodon and their kin, Bison B.C. has the potential to reach that bands’ level as their fans will surely tell you, and has their own style to add to the genre of ‘mind metal’.
‘Anxiety Puke/Lovelessness’ is the second track on the effort and has a throb of punk sensibility reminiscent of Black Flag, but then flips itself over and takes root in old metal magic. Gorgeous guitars blend over one another and their notes hang and bump into one another with malice punctuated by agonizing vocals. Lyrically, the thematic of ‘Lovelessness’ are glaringly clear, this is no R.E.M. ‘Happy Shiny People’ unless Slayer covered the tune and changed the lyrics to deal with destruction, death, and desolation. The “psalms of suffering” continue with ‘Last and First Things’. Starting on a slower tone than its predecessors on the disc, it quickly pulls the listener in and puts a choke hold on their eardrums. Their is a dichotomy present here of complex yet simplistic measures that are burrowed in familiarity but have a twisting, festering, invasive new passion that is infectious; it’s as if the body has lost control and must now sway and pound in homage to the music before it.
‘Blood Music’ continues the barrage of the senses and will make any sensible metalhead pray that Bison B.C. hits their town. They have built quite a reputation for their live show, touring with the likes of Baroness, Priestess, and Ghenghis Tron. Hard hiiting and unsympathetic in its brutality, ‘Blood Music’ could be the best description of Bison’s sound yet. Next up is ‘Clozapine Dream’ named after the drug oft prescribed to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia. The drug is typically used as a last resort, thus fitting very neatly into the feel and tone of Bison B.C.’s third release on Metal Blade. The cohesiveness of the music with the lyrical content puts this accomplishment on par with the bands’ cohorts such as Between the Buried and Me, Baroness, Becoming the Archetype, and The Dillinger Escape Plan. To conclude their latest is ‘Finally Asleep’ that trudges in with a military like beat to put to rest any doubts of the true weight of the material, bloody and beaten from the experience, scarred by pure existence, and disturbed beyond repair. It is the perfect cap off to what amounts to an amazing piece of sludge metal that will rot in your brain, devour your veins, and haunt your soul.
BISON B.C. worked with acclaimed producer Sanford Parker at Soma and Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago to record Lovelessness. Parker is best known for his work with bands such as Yob, Pelican, Rwake, Yakuza, Nachtmystium, Zoroaster, Unearthly Trance, and more. Needless to say, Parker is more than qualified to put-to-tape the raw, furious
energy that is BISON b.c.
What others are saying about Bison B.C.:
“thrash, smash and fuck-you-up energy that’ll soil your britches faster than a bottle of Mexican moonshine” Decibel
Magazine
“And worthy of a herd of their namesake, their music is thunderous, bone-shaking and most of all, heavy. Really heavy.
These cats have got their own gravitational pull.” Sacramento Press
“Heavy, man. Real heavy. Jean-jacket heavy.” RollingStone.com
