Come to Grief

Grief made the same type of music -- call it "sludge," "doom," or some combination of the two -- as Eyehategod, but they were scraped off the wall of some Boston alley rather than dredged from a Southern swamp, so their music had even less blues/swing to it, and even more raw hostility. They were kindred spirits to Boston hardcore acts like Slapshot and SSD, but playing at half to quarter the speed. Vocalist/guitarist Jeff Hayward doesn't sing; he shouts and howls in the raw-throated style of hardcore bands like Rorschach, as the band churns out one slow-moving riff after another behind him and the drummer plays something that could be called a beat if it was twice as fast. As it is, it sounds like he's trying to demolish the drum kit by force. Songs frequently begin with feedback (though "Ruined" kicks off with a sample of a guy who might well be insane, ranting about something that's never made clear), and then crawl along for six or up to ten minutes, in the case of album opener "Earthworm" (not a Flipper cover). Come to Grief is a mean, self- and everyone-else-hating album that offers no catharsis, no release from pain, only the promise of more pain to come. [The Willowtip reissue adds one previously unreleased track, originally recorded for a horror movie soundtrack but never used.] ~ Phil Freeman