Look Out! Grunge is Back!

HEAVY CHAINS /// STONED STRIPPER from Patrick Cruz on Vimeo.

Above, find the video for "Stoned Stripper" by Vancouver punk super group (ugh) Heavy Chains.  You'll be getting Andrea from Nu Sensae, Anne-Marie from White Lung, and Brodie McKnight from Sex Negative.  They've got this EP thing called A Very Real Hell and it's pretty goddamn fantastic.


Basically, Heavy Chains take the classic "Grunge" formula and deconstruct it into punishing, warped, incoherent minimalism.  And as long-time readers of this fine publication can tell you (hi, mom!), I like punishing, warped, incoherent minimalism QUITE A BIT.


The video track is the closest that Hell gets to standard songwriting, in that it actually has lyrics.  The vocals on most of the other songs are just bloodcurdling shrieks, usually slathered with a heavy coat of crazy outer-space effects.  The guitars and bass are ostensibly rooted in classic grunge tropes (mid-to-late seventies metal, psychedelic blues/punk) but the riffs are approached with such brutal repetition that they cease to offer the listener any reference points, so the only guides to where the songs are going are the drums and those awful, awful screams.  Oh, and the guitars have crazy outer-space effects on them, too.  Taken as a whole, it's like listening to old Nirvana albums while caught in a particularly violent hurricane.


So, here's "Shit Burning Piss Tubing" and "Commo Wire" off A Very Real Hell.  No, you don't get the whole album.  It just came out!  Go buy it from Nu Sensae and White Lung, they're ALWAYS on tour, and god knows they can use the money.