Subterranean Lovers/Vile Creature
Subterranean Lovers
Subterranean Lovers // Independent
Subterranean Lovers makes music to mourn your Johnny to, standing in the alleyway in ripped black jeans, one foot up on the brick wall, smoking a cigarette. It haunts the spots where you used to go together, waiting languidly about the corners and rolling in the grass where he took you on that hot June morning. It traces the locations of lost love like a detective looking for evidence, and jots it on a napkin before dashing off to the next spot, leaving a trail of dead daisies in its wake. Under the smokestacks, where the paper mill spills out into the causeway, it takes a shot of his favourite bourbon with a trembling hand, then stumbles to the bathroom to heave it up.
Post-punk and new wave collide splendidly in synth-laced acoustic jams that sway but refuse to dance, sigh but refuse to burst into tears, just keep that perfect bitterness in the back of its throat, singing the primordial caterwaul of the broken hearted punkstress in distress. Like tomcats to a queen in heat, here come the Johnny’s, slinking along the alleyways, lured by the call of duty and danger.
- JD Ormond
Vile Creature
Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm! // Prosthetic Records
Brutality can be beautiful. I kept hearing that phrase in my head listening to Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm! Or, as another anonymous listener put it, "another unforseen way to to make heavy sounds".
Hamilton's crushing duo bring the slow & heavy with anti-oppressive and fantastical leanings. Recorded in early 2020 at Boxcar Sounds Recordings, Vile Creature mix equal parts of anguish and brutality. Somehow they come up with an end product that feels transformative and positive. My favorite track, both in name and content, is "You Who Has Never Slept". It trudges toward some far off goal, and almost lays down a fat groove... and then, it does.
Perhaps that's why metalheads are some of the most well adjusted, humanistic souls I know. They understand the power of catharsis on the human psyche. And they regularly hit that reset button.
Doom/Sludge is in dire need of this album. Vile Creature use familiar tools to construct that which is honest and brutal and accepting. I think, when we learn to really love ourselves, only then can true empathy happen.
We can all learn a little from our friendly neighborhood angst mongers. Get brutal. Get honest. Take the valve off the pressure cooker. Love yourself. Love one another. Listen to Vile Creature.
- Drew Cox
