ULTRALORD

With members of FISTULA, RUE, RUNE, and MADMAN MUNT, it is not much of a shock that on "We Hate You and Hope You Die" Ohio's ULTRALORD play uncompromising, sludge-drenched, anti-social grime metal. I wouldn't exactly call it a trailblazing or original release, but goddamn, it hits with all the subtly of a tire iron to the cranium.

The majority of the songs alternate between mid-to-up-tempo sludge thrashing and a slow, doom-laden churn, with the occasional Ginn-like (as in Greg and BLACK FLAG) guitar solo. Producer-on-the-rise Vince Burke (BEATEN BACK TO PURE) gives the guitars of Andy Strickland and Scott Stearns a vicious bite, and the rhythm section of bassist Bahb Branca and drummer Corey Bing a command presence and natural feel. The vocals are coarse, snotty, and pissed off, but generally intelligible. As mentioned above, songs like "Wizard Pimp", "Pussy Witch", "Black Maggot", and the downright violent "Don't Fear the Reefer" move from doom-plod groove to up-tempo and reckless slamming. And when it feels right, the boys ride a chug for as long as it takes for the eyeliner contingent to get up and leave. "Blood Sinner" has some especially crackling licks and a ripping attack that then gives way to a creepy/trippy part while a guitar solos in the midst of a steady beat and light riff. Three distinct and effective tempo shifts occur in "Negative D", including a gnarly doom crawl and mid-tempo, rolling SABBATH crush. Sludge sickness abounds on the three-minute "Roach Detector" (by far the album's shortest track) and the interestingly constructed (riff-wise) "Dirty Living".

This is over-amplified anger for the disaffected, and it is performed with the nasty disposition of a hung-over, three-day tweaker. Folks "in the know" about Ohio's east-side underground sludge/doom collective will find much to like here.