Gritty Chimp Reviews Metal Swim - Adult Swim's latestest FREE downloadable album, yeah?

Metal + Gritty Chimp = happy face

Metal Swim is here! (Ed's note: it's been here for a while, actually, but, y'know... stuff to do and stuff). A whopping 16 tracks of tempered steel designed for your maladjusted ear holes. But this isn't some dodgy CD given away with Terroriser magazine, this is a well thought out compilation of lesser-known nuggets of gilded brilliance that aim to appease those Swim fans of a metal persuasion. Plus it's completely free.

To get the best out of this I've had it loud on my crappy MP3 player as my primary source of drowning out the daily noise of the Manchester populace wherever possible. From hospital waiting rooms to the Salford Job Centre it's been a solid companion in the fight against inane background chatter.

In all, it's a solid compilation of grimy pleasure that sweeps across a wide spectrum of metal genres, thankfully none of them as insipid as the unpalatable bile you find frequenting Kerrang! these days.  I've gone and picked my top 5 tracks based on what made the hairs on my very metal arms tickle and what made me smile whilst browsing for overpriced cat food and toiletries in the hot misery hole that is Tesco Metro.

5.      Hank Is Dead – Red Fang

Well as a massive Venture Brothers fan I thought a title like this can't be ignored. Hank is Dead is in fact nothing to do with our favourite teenage adventurer, but the thoughts of Hank in his various death throws, persists making this cheery number perk me up just that little more when it comes about on Shuffle. It reminds me of early Soundgarden and Queens of the Stone Age from the era when I could still fit into my skinny pants and survive a night out on less than a tenner.

4.      Truce – Death Angel

Some good honest thrash from metal legends Death Angel. Coming at you like the hybrid baby of Dave Mustane and Kerry King it's got windmill potential galore and you'd be hard pressed to navigate the pavement with any sense of carefree whimsy. This tune will make you stomp along at breakneck speed with little regard for the needs of the window shopping public.

3.      Dixie Dieway – Saviours

Some classic stoner metal next and Dixie Dieway has a sound that lies somewhere between early Judas Priest and classic American road rock. It hits you hard and fast with a blast of eager guitar that makes you think Tommy Lee is going to ride past any second with an army of frizzy haired hookers and take you to an LA coke party. All this, punctuated with some dreamy hardcore vocals, is a combination assured to get your ass moving to wherever you need to get to.

2.      Luna – Boris

Now this for me is one of the strangest tracks in the compilation. I've largely ignored that whole J-Rock scene as its devotees tend to be kids my youngest sister's age who all grew up with Pokemon and are obsessed with the slightest whiff of anything emanating from Japan. It would appear that these boys did too and they live there. According to the blurb, Boris (awesome band name) have had trouble fitting in and are virtually unheard of in their native county and it's not hard to see why. This track prompted many re-listens as at first I just couldn't figure it out. This frustration however has rewarded me with something I've not had in a long time, an original musical experience. It's as if an indie band's drummer had died and the only person they could get at short notice was Gene Hoglan. You've got very trippy melodic vocals pitched against extremely aggressive drumming, soft guitars upfront with scratchy doom like guitars off in the distance. But it works! By the time the soothing sample of the sea washes over your cochlea at the end of the track you're left slightly reeling from the complexity of it all.

1. Path of Ash – Ludicra

This doom laden offering is my personal number one. Path of Ash is a nine minute epic of Black Metal done good. There's something about this track that took me back to my angst-riddled days of listening to nothing but Norway's most depressing offerings. Starting off slow, it builds up the  atmospheric ferocity of the melodic, foreboding guitars to a crescendo of emotive, tortured screams and heart wrenching solos. It lies somewhere between the bleak yet beautiful offerings of My Dying Bride and the tortured cries of In The Woods and early Katatonia (note: nothing to do with that Welsh bint by the way). It's music like this that blackened my wardrobe and set me on a sixteen year mission to achieve ass length hair to do it justice. As much as I've softened and grown a sense of humour in my later years, tucked away in a special place of my psyche there'll always be that young lad who used to sit at the back of the bus wearing an oversized black leather trench coat, naively throwing evils to his fellow passengers whilst leaking monstrous metal from his tinny Walkman headphones. This one's for him.  

Other notable mentions:

Veil of the Mountain – Witch Mountain

Remember the Sirens from that episode of Aqua Teen? This is what they'd be doing if you stuck them in a recording studio. Heart, eat your heart out (ahem)

Bringers of Death – Skeletonwitch

A joyful Thrash/ Black Metal melting pot who have only recently surfaced on the reignited extreme metal scene. I first heard these guys whilst playing Brutal Legend on the PS3 and it's like they've always been here. A great track that chugs away at a toe tappingly healthy pace. Catch the brutal video below. Redneck zombies and teddy bears, you can't go wrong.

 Metal Swim is available to download free from Williams St Music here.