Slothrust
Everyone Else
Reviewed By: Lauren Rosier
The garage rock band, Slothrust, returns with the trio’s latest release, Everyone Else, and shows an immense amount of growth compared to their last record.
The three-piece opens the 10-song set with an in-your-face instrumental, “Surf Goth,” that slays like a metal band, but with the craziness of a math rock band. Think Animals As Leaders or Maps and Atlases, but different. Perhaps less intense, dirtier, but in a good way.
On “Like A Child Hiding Behind Your Tombstone,” the band appears to slow the tempo in the beginning, but then breaks into heavy-hitting garage rock with some great melodic guitar about a minute into the track.
The trio ranges on the quieter side in the introspective track “Horseshoe Crab” where lead vocalist Leah Wellbaum rises from a more conversational tone to a raspy growl. She sings of isolation on the track: “…words make less sense to me these days / faces look flat and unfamiliar / do you want to rest forever / underwater it gets better / when I get better / I’ll treat you like I used to / I’ll do the things you want me to…”
“Mud” begins as what seems to be one of the quieter tracks on the album, just as “Horseshoe Crab” does, but just paves the way into the heavier parts of the song. It begins with some melodic guitar paired with Wellbaum’s grungy vocals, but then barges into heavy rock that reminds me a lot of what rock band Brand New accomplished on The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. The transitions in this song are clear-cut, clean, and effortless.
One of the major characteristics of this record that stuck out immediately was their versatility. Slothrust has the experience and talent to know how to write songs that have their own character, personality, that stand own their own.
Rating: Bad-Ass
