OCTOBER 2008 ONLINE EDITORIALS

Cobalt - Landfill Breastmilk Beast

By Nathan Harper

From the ominous opening chords of “Stomach,” the first track of the provocatively titled Landfill Breastmilk Beast EP from Colorado’s Cobalt, one immediately understands the occluded atmosphere the band seeks to conjure. As vocalist Phil McSorley’s almost inhuman vocals come in along with the rumbling punch of multi-instrumentalist Erik Wunder’s drums, the listener is reminded that although metal seems in perpetual danger of stagnating, given a wide enough array of influences even a genre with several fairly static constants can be advanced.

The EP consists of three songs, the aforementioned “Stomach,” a cover of “Extinction” by seminal New York crust-punk band Nausea, and the thirty minute acoustic/ambient recording “Ritual Use of Fire,” an unkempt epic about loss and rejection that is best listened to alone. Parts of “Fire,” which was completed solely by McSorley, were used on the bands 2007 full-length Eater of Birds, but it appears here in its entirety.
The fist two songs are an unholy hybrid of sludgy, blackened war-metal, the fierce discordant guitars and rapid drumming giving way to galloping rhythms and bass-heavy breakdowns reminiscent of early Tool. As the metal trend of the mid-2000s continues to fade, listeners of this EP are reminded of the initial push by artists like Nausea, and those they inspired, like Cobalt, to make something inherently non-commercial – a product that couldn’t be sold back as a lifestyle because of its uncompromising rejection of the broad social mores taken for granted by most people releasing music. And it’s really heavy.