Thursday 23 April 2015

Gorilla [Obliterator]

I found this while scouring a second-hand shop in London in 2002, one of those discs where i thought 'hey, this looks really interesting', the cover caught my eye, i knew nothing about the band or the music, only what i could visually see, and since it was a ridiculously low price, i took the risk and bought it, well it's American Punk, quite fast, the singer Dan Merrick has an interesting voice, not lyrical at all, can be gruff and a bit out of tune [but that's good for Punk!], and then when he tries to sing louder, his voice gets higher and more nasally, i like that a lot!, their songs are usually quite short, 14 tracks for 40 minutes gives you an idea, each song initially sounds quite similar, they don't seem to have a real range of musical weaponry, but when you get into them you realise that the songs are really quite different, there's great ideas going on in there, i'm glad i took a chance with this disc, this is the way to discover new music.

Gorilla are a Seattle based Band, formed i guess in the early nineties, i don't think they're still going today, they shouldn't be confused with another group that also call themselves Gorilla, a PsychoBilly Band from Hungary, of course a major influence in buying this disc was the front cover [by Scott Larson], showing a goldfish in a blender, i think visually it's a great idea, a blue / mauve background, but otherwise very black & white, and it's the orange goldfish that stands out, i like the way they slant things on the back inlay, the lettering / numerals stand out and are easy to read, a great product all round.

On this listen i loved tracks 1-3, 5-6, 8 & 14, well that's half of the album, the best two tracks were 5 & 8, and here's a little review of each,
5 Slot [2:21] - A nice three chord ding dong of an intro on the guitar, then the vocals come in really fast, he almost stumbles over the lyrics, the lead guitar really pulls the tune, towards the end the organ swirls in, a great track.
8 Snag [2:47] - The intro isn't all that inspired, but when the singing comes in, the song goes up a couple of notches, the guitar chugs in the background, and it's easy to notice the organ keys, quite a long instrumental middle section, the lyrics leave a bit to be desired, but it's lovely Punk.

Here's samples of this album on the AllMusic Website.