Noosebomb

There’s an unexplainable joy in hearing a favourite vocalist after a long while, and the gargling screeches of Jeff Hayward warm the cockles of many a dark heart. Sludge fans felt the earth cease to rumble when Grief called it a day a few years back. Fortunately, Hayward and bassist Randy Odierno are keeping the corpse alive as Massachusetts’ Noosebomb, but on a different slant: less doom and more punk, reverting to their pre-Grief days as grind/punk anarchists Disrupt. From the opening throat torture of "Hell Bent For Retirement,” Hayward shows that he’s still got the pipes — and wicked axe-grinding — to do major damage. "Scrounging” is more fast-paced and structured like -16-, but the stupendous "Multi-Faceted Personality” is the most Grief-like, hearkening back to the proto-numbness of 1994’s Come To Grief and travelling through the quicker counts of 1997’s Torso. "12 Items Or Less,” however, recalls Megadeth’s early thrash with its cut-and-dried chords. Following a similar path but more influenced by Extreme Noise Terror, "Targeted” ends with a Cathedral-like dirge coda and a memorable Steve Martin quote from The Jerk. "Venus Dream Trap” certainly doesn’t mince riffs with its frontal hardcore assault, and "Crap” double-times then triple-times its frenzied, punk-sodden rhythms. First Disrupt, then Grief, now Noosebomb, and Brain Food is a perfect melding of those two extremes.