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Troglodyte - Welcome to Boggy Creek

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In the IO review of Morbus Chron’s album Sleepers in the Rift, mention was made of a “Neanderthal NWOOSDM stomp”. It’s a tag that suits Troglodyte, from Kansas City, to perfection. On their debut Welcome To Boggy Creek, Troglodyte make no attempt to hide their true nature: they are, quite simply, a death metal band whose songs are about Sasquatch. That’s it. No allegory, no commentary, no irony: just Sasquatch. I mean, look at that goddamn cover: it’s a woman getting her face ripped off by Sasquatch! Look at the band members: they’re all wearing homemade caveman masks! Look at the song titles: “Beaten and Eaten”, “Symphonies of Sasquatch”, “Hit by the Hendersons”! They even refer to themselves as “Neandercore”.

Without solid, brutal music, however, this honesty would amount to nothing, and Troglodyte would just be another metal gimmick, destined for a brief existence as an in-joke before ultimately fading out of relevance. However, Troglodyte are able to bolster their gimmick with some truly memorable songs. The songs move at various paces, most often alternating between a hunger-crazed sprint (“Mummified Yeti Hand” blasts out of the gate like Origin’s primordial ancestor), and a ponderous ape-man stomp. The breakdowns on “Bring Me the Head of Bigfoot”, where some seriously gnarly double-bass action kicks in and the band makes like mid-period Dying Fetus, evoke images of a woodland throwdown of grandiose proportions.

Obviously, music about Sasquatch is not meant to be hyper-technical guitar wankery, but Troglodyte don’t make the mistake that a lesser NWOOSDM band might have made – of entirely giving in to the crawling, Cianide-style death/doom that is coming back into vogue. Rather, this is pure death metal, which is a good choice, as it allows the band to make big, dumb, primitive music, while also doing something new. Complex guitar licks, often arpeggiated, are layered over simple riffs, giving the music a depth that is in many ways reminiscent of the golden age of Morrisound death metal. “Piece of You” starts off sounding like it just ambled off of Tomb of the Mutilated, then settles into an arm-swinging groove reminiscent of Deicide’s best, replete with Hoffman brothers-esque dueling guitar rhythms.

Troglodyte is clearly not the greatest band in the world, nor is Welcome To Boggy Creek the best album of the year. That said, it has a certain lack of pretension which makes it a breath of fresh air in the midst of this year’s album offerings, the majority of which are almost stiflingly serious in their intent. Troglodyte sidestep this, offering nothing more than the image of being trampled under(big)foot. There are surprises to be found, for sure; any band wishing to invoke the essence of Sasquatch must also conjure up the surprise element of the phenomenon. Parts of this album surprise you, catching you unawares, often multiple times within the same song. With or without flashes of grace, though, Troglodyte simply are what they are: a shambling, grunting mass of burly death metal, lying in wait to kick some ass.

— Rhys Williams

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HEAR TROGLODYTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSK_gUy7nWw

Troglodyte – “Bring Me the Head of Bigfoot”

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BUY WELCOME TO BOGGY CREEK

Troglodyte (CD)

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