Following a captivating live performance I bought both the band’s GERM EP and recent single Carmilla. Both live up to the eye- popping attack of the band onstage. There’s not one duff song, no low-key moments – this is just glorious stuff throughout. They are from Birmingham and that Black Sabbath doom DNA percolates through their filter with some Banshees stylings for good measure. All this topped off with the extraordinary vocals of Lolly Hayes. She is just as compelling on record as she is onstage.
SWRM! opens the EP with jagged speaker slashing riffs, but there’s a groove and feel underneath to it too. Lolly comes in and establishes her authority immediately. Objectify! Testify! is a boiling whirlpool of riffs (which Tony Iommi would love) and Hayes’ declamatory vocals. Gotta love the intense outro too, the silence after it is almost as deafening. The Ant Burns Under The Magnifying Glass twists and turns and there’s good use too of dynamics with less intense passages almost allowing breathing spaces.
There’s an almost mystical nod to the East in Leigh Evans’ guitar work at times on this. It’s sometimes the case that you can’t quite top a live version of a song when it comes to recording it. So fortunately we get to hear the band at their most vital with a live take of Evil. Its military drum intro goes well with Evans’ nagging riff. And you know this is a band that nags at you too, especially Lolly. What is she going to say and do next you wonder – and she’s at her most commanding here.
Now the EP is great, believe it, but latest single Carmilla is mind-blowing stuff. It’s an absolute rampage of a song with a kind of Sex Pistols riff to it and Hayes somehow manages to even surpass her vocals on GERM. This is a stunning song, pure excitement and attack and oh my my what a fret-melting solo Leigh pulls out of the bag! BLDSUGR! take no prisoners and it’s wonderful to find a band who are capable of affecting you in that way still. This is life-affirming stuff. You can be captivated by them or hate them but you can’t ignore or forget them and how many bands can you say that about? Buy the EP and the single from their Bandcamp page – Music | BLDSUGR! Listen to Carmilla.
