Smothered in Heaviness
Boy! This record is heavy. Whilst there's some debate over the actual meaning of the word 'heavy' in heavy metal, Teeth of the Hydra's latest opus, 'Greenland', has that aura that oozes heaviness. Of course heaviness can be many things, speed, production, intensity, aggression, but as far as 'Teeth of the Hydra are concerned, their heaviness comes in the dirty, down-tuned, gloomy guitars and almost mud drenched production. Update early Black Sabbath at their doomiest, replace Ozzy with Celtic Frost's Tom Gabriel Fischer, and you'll get some sort of idea where 'Teeth...' are coming from.
Labelled as a concept album about the harshness of arctic life (the reason why the album was called Greenland apparently), the opening track 'Sawing through the ice' is an intense blast of 70's attitude. It's about falling through a crevice on a fishing trip, or at least that's what the band would have us believe, all I know is that it's the next best thing to a steamer for ripping the paper off the walls. 'Our strange man' has a similar effect, with it's behemoth like rhythm section courtesy of Matt Bailey and Jamie Stillman.
Teeth of the Hydra are all about colossal riffs. They're not overly complicated, but they utilise the bottom end giving the band that weighty drive many bands fail to obtain. Matt and Jamie chock around the massive guitar work without over playing, but just doing enough to keep the listener riveted. This is best demonstrated on the leviathan that is the eleven-minute 'The Garden of Rotten Teeth'. Perhaps a little Cathedral in places, the song is a triumph from start to finish. It's slow, doomy, sombre, yet has enough guitar licks to weave around your metal heart and infect your soul. Curiously it's about a man who's been arrested in his sleep and is sent to Siberia to work in nuclear city where the radiation rots his teeth out. Not exactly about ice, snow and the Arctic, but as I tried to get up from my chair, after being pummelled by this mammoth tune, I didn't particularly care. I knew I had listened to something special.
My initial reaction to Matt Miner's vocals was one of uncertainty. His growling is a little strained at times and not very melodic, but after only three listens of 'Greenland' I had listened past my hesitations and realised they suit the shit-heavy music perfectly. 'Eruptin' just throws more gargantuan riffs at you, and as well as 'Garden of Rotten Teeth', it's an album highlight. Its constant wall of noise is relentless almost to point of submission within the listener. Sadly 'Narsaq' is a pointless 5 minutes, but this just leads on to the instant up-tempo groove of 'Purgatorium'.
This is stoner rock at it's best; there's no better description of 'Greenland' than that. Fans of Black Sabbath, Cathedral, Reverend Bizarre, Celtic Frost should pick this release up as soon as they can. I don't think it'll be everyone's cup of tea, stoner metal is an acquired taste, and I don't think it's going to break the mainstream any time soon, but I would argue that most of the best metal can be found in the underground. As I've mentioned before, 'heavy' can suggest many things, but I think Teeth of the Hydra are perhaps one of the few bands I've heard that almost epitomise all aspects of its meaning. Brilliant.