EP Review: "Beneath" by Merchant

Beneath

Because they are on my brain, let's talk about the nachos that are presently cooking in my house. Well, slow cooking. The chicken won't be done for another five to six hours.

At the time of this writing, the Blues will be hosting the Nashville Predators for Game 1 of the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs...and it's hard to keep focused on anything else.

Nachos though. That's what I'm making for dinner, but not just any nachos, slow cooked barbecue chicken nachos.

I'll give you the secret. Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce and chicken breasts. Cook them in your crock pot for about 8 to 9 hours, add some extra time if they're frozen.

I add garlic powder and cracked pepper to the sauce before it starts going.

When plating, microwave the tortilla chips, sprinkle liberally with shredded cheese. Then add your meat and again add shredded cheese. Then comes the nacho cheese. My personal favorite is La Preferida in the can. Add jalapenos, sour cream, and anything else you'd like.

Merchant

The secret to great sludge metal is no different than the secret to making great nachos.

Layer quality ingredients from top to bottom. Some may argue with my cheese choice, and jog on if you do.

Australia's Merchant seems to know how to cook up awesome fuzzed out sludge metal.

Side one starts out a little unfocused. There's kind of a stream of consciousness going on. 

It's trippy, melodic, and grimy. 

After a time, around about four minutes, the vocals come in. This is an interesting entry point, because instead of them jumping in and standing upon the shoulders of the rest of the band, but slides in underneath.

The idea of the vocals being a part of a song, instead of the basis for said song, is still a bit strange in Western Music. However, is Australia part of the west? We'll let the geographers battle that one out.

This disc has only two tracks, one per side. Long form metal is always the best, unless it's not. In the heading this was called an EP, but only because that's what they called it. This record does clock in at more than 1 Reign In Blood, making it a full LP in my mind.

This is the kind of music that's just perfect to listen to while we all watch the world burn.

Release: 5/12/17

Genre: Sludge Metal

Label: Black Bow Records

Formats:

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