Electricjezus - Грязь поколений [Mud of Generations] (album review)

Cover artwork by Timur Khabirov

The title of Electricjezus' debut album, 'Грязь поколений' translates from Russian to English as 'Mud of Generations'.  It's an interesting title as this fairly new duo leave their dried and flaking crust punk leanings out in a heavy rain of slow riffs, which is not to say that the music is watered down by any means.  It's just muddy.  Electricjezus' brand of muddy sludge is what happens when you take punk and mix it with doom.

'Mud of Generations' features every kind of heaviness one would care to name.  You've got doom, sludge and hardcore sounds, but also heavy vibes, heavy film clips and heavy subject matter.  The lyrics are in Russian but that makes no difference to me, the vocals are quite hard edged and raspy so it all just sounds pretty heavy.  The message is extreme no matter what language the lyrics speak or what they speak of.  At times Ruslan, the vocalist, sounds like a ghost trapped inside of a corpse being crushed and pulped, when the drums thrash behind him one can imagine rotten limbs flailing, it makes for a horrific effect.

Actually, the compositions are split unevenly between their stoner sludge and hardcore punk sound with three of the shorter tracks dedicated to this latter category: "Улицы (Street of Broken Lights)", "Плеть культуры (Lash of Culture)" and "Бассейн (Pool)".  The rest of the album is made up of generally longer cuts that are probably a bit closer to what Paranoid people might recognize as doom or sludge.  Riffy cuts of vile guitar tone and crash heavy drums.

The centerpiece of the album is its title track, "Грязь поколений (Mud of Generations)".  Just the kind of song that this reviewer loves.  A riff straight out of the ancient book of demonic hymns: a slow and massive devil's third workout with vocals howled from the crypt of graves.  It evokes a specific mood, striking the perfect chord of doom.  Somehow, it seems lately I'm hearing less of this kind of material.  A treasure of graves; robbed.  "Все позволено (All Is Allowed)" is another excellent entry into the genre.  Really, it's easy to get caught up into segregating each and every song into it's own subgenre, at the end of the day, Electricjezus gives the listener a string of great riffs played at various tempos with varying degrees of high intensity.  Battering snares, warping cymbals and smashing guitars is just rockin' no matter what speed you do it at.

Ruslan and Oleg, the two guys in the band are quite creative, not only in their compositions but also by how they achieve their sounds.  If I'm understanding things correctly, Ruslan plays "bass" through his guitar by attaching a single bass pickup to the neck of his guitar, he also uses heavy guage strings to get that thick tone.  Oleg uses 22 inch ride or pieces of metal for a hi-hat.  Now, that's industrious.

Overall, the tone and feeling Electricjezus pumps out is the soundtrack to putrefaction.  Thick, foul, abrasive compositions of decomposition.

Highlights include: "Корм (Feed)" and "Грязь поколений (Mud of Generations)"

Rating: 4/5

Total Run Time: 43:22

Ruslan Frolov - guitar/bass/vocal/hair
Oleg Skorohodov - drums

From: Dmitrov, Russia

Genre: Doom, Sludge, Hardcore, Experimental

Reminds me of: Lord of the Grave

Release Date: February 19, 2013

Suggested listening activity for fellow non-stoners: When you can feel yourself rot, you know it's time to listen to Electricjezus.

Better Reviews:
Sludgelord
Temple of Perdition

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