Song debut: Oozing Wound - "Call Your Guy"
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IO ran a post-mortem on retro thrash back in April. If it is right and the retro thrash thing is truly done, then perhaps we can all move on with our lives and start treating new thrash bands as simply playing within one metal idiom among many, rather than as participants in a fad or an insurgent movement.
We’d do well to do so, methinks. Though thrash will never be my favorite style of metal, I’ve found myself more excited by bands plying the trade in the past few years than I’ve been since I got into the stuff in middle school. Vektor, Nekromantheon, and Noisem (who are playing the IO-sponsored A389 fest) all come to mind.
Add Oozing Wound to the list. This Chicago band is a relatively under-the-radar acquisition for their label Thrill Jockey. They’re little-known enough that they don’t even have a Metal Archives page yet. Nor do any of the bands listed in their member history, save Zath, another thrash band. (Perhaps not all of them are metal bands. None of them ring a bell for me.)
Like Noisem or Slutvomit (who also have a sweet record out this year), Oozing Wound juices up their thrash with ingredients from newer, scarier parts of the metal world. Where Noisem draws on death metal and Slutvomit borrows from black metal, these guys thicken their brew with sludge. The effect is like Slayer on an all-hamburger diet, or like High on Fire with a far larger thrash component. Incidentally, High on Fire is one of the three bands they list as an influence on their FB; the other two are Black Sabbath and…the Carpenters. Very funny, guys.
Schlocky humor has always been the component of thrash that I’ve been least comfortable with. (I am a sourpuss.) Still, I like the way that Oozing Wound handles it. They joke around, but theirs are mean, bullying jokes. The song we’ve got streaming here, “Call Your Guy,” is about violently shaking down the buyer in a drug deal; it’s silly, but also kinda fucked up. “Can’t squeeze the blood from a stoner / But I still try every time,” vocalist/guitarist Zack Weil screeches. Even the title of the album, Retrash, has the sound of a kiss-off.
Retrash comes out on October 15 via Thrill Jockey; preorder it here. The label also asked that I include their “commercial” for the record, which you can check out below. Of more obvious utility is the fact that the band is hitting the road for a run of US dates in October/November. Those dates are also listed below.
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Oozing Wound tour dates
10/24/2013 – Chicago, IL – The Empty Bottle w/ The Body, Running, Toupee
10/25/2013 – Indianapolis, IN – Heaven’s Gate w/ Ex-Cult
10/26/2013- Columbus, OH – The Summit w/ The Body, Beneath Oblivion
10/27/2013 – Cleveland, OH – Now That’s Class w/ Born Wrong
10/28/2013 – Pittsburgh, PA – Gooski’s w/ Drug Lust
10/29/2013 – Philadelphia, PA – Silk City w/ Usti Waya
10/30/2013 – Brooklyn, NY – Death by Audio w/ The Dreebs, Pop 1280, Sediment Club
11/1/2013 – Worcester, MA – Collective a Go Go w/ The Dreebs
11/2/2013 – Boston, MA – J.P. Drive-In w/ The Dreebs
11/3/2013 – Brooklyn, NY – Secret Project Robot w/ Guardian Aien, Skimask, Child Abuse
11/4/2013 – Baltimore, MD – Floristree w/ WUME
11/7/2013 – St. Louis, MO – Blank Space
11/9/2013 – Chicago, IL – Club Rectum : Varnish Festival w/ Raspberry Bulbs
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