Primitive Man — Home Is Where the Hatred Is

Denver doom trio, Primitive Man, is back with Home Is Where the Hatred Is, a limited 12" EP on Relapse Records. Black and bleak, Primitive Man mixes heavy, slow sludge and propulsive, headbanging speed with engaging results. Stretching the limits of an EP, Home Is Where the Hatred Is clocks in at over a half hour of pure metal mayhem.

Primitive Man starts Home off with the feedback fueled "Loathe."  Swaths of feedback and long drones are punctuated by varying degrees of heavy grooves. Starting out with an almost Neurosis like sound, PM slows it all down into a busy, thick soup of feedback, fuzz, and drums. Brief, blissful bloodshowers of speed (Incantation, anyone?) add nice progression to the track and make the sludge thicker by comparison. Showing a punk influence, "Downfall" starts off quickly and intensely. A quick death blast rockets forward before the song delves into the depths of murk and grime. Veering from the tempo changes of the first two, "Bag Man" keeps a more consistent speed throughout. There are faster parts, but they're not blistering or too far from the normal doom. Rounding out the EP is the abstract and noisy, "A Marriage With Nothingness." Freeform metal writhes and grows into a noisy beast that oscillates about all while playing host to the moans of a woman in ecstasy. A departure in structure, but still grim in tone, "Marriage" makes for an interesting endpiece to a pretty solid doom album.

Adding more extreme metal elements to doom has is nothing new, so don't expect anything mind blowing on Home Is Where the Hatred Is. However, the music is tight and it's played and crafted with care. Overall, it's pretty interchangeable with most stuff I've heard in the past couple of years, but definitely worth a listen