Fukpig / Kroh - Split 10"

Fukpig bring their haunted crusty d-beat mind-melt to this 10" with Kroh; a confusing clean vocals 'n' super heavy doom combo act. I believe both bands share the same guitarist, but I could be wrong. The guitar tone is really similar by both bands though, even if musically they are completely different. Fukpig bring us three tracks of blackened punk madness, my favourite of which must be "The Prisoner", although opening track "Docile Subjects" brings all the synth creeping in the universe. Kroh lament us through two sludgy hymns of stonery goodness, my favourite of which has to be "Retribution", that although with a softer vocal has a bit more punch to it all round. 

I believe that this is quite a collectable now; not that many of these 10"s were made and like all Fukpig vinyl (this is no exception), it has a habit of disappearing very quickly. Self-released under Devizes Records - also home to both bands. 

Kroh / Ice Dragon - Split 7"

Kroh are on top form here, bringing up more mega-heavy tunage with their trademark crooning vocals. This could be a B-side from the S/T recording sessions for all I know, the sound is that similar to the recordings used there. Does it matter? Nope. Great stuff! Fat production, brilliant singing and THAT guitar sound that we love so much from Fukpig.

 

Ice Dragon I can't get my head around, unfortunately. The sound is an absolute mess, and the band play in some sort of melodic trad doom approach which is as confusing as it is interesting. Imagine merging Zeppelin and Sabbath in a birthing pool filled to the brim with the essence of the modern stoner metal sound, and then throw in some awful production values and you've pretty much got Ice Dragon. Eventually the song slows into one epic solo and shit sounds great, but when things are going faster it just all falls apart. I think I need to see these live to form a decent opinion on them.

Limited to 100 copies on Devizes Records, 50 on green wax and 50 on orange (this fucker).