More than likely, if you've heard of Jason Crumer, it's through his crusty sludgecore outfit Facedowninshit that he plays guitar and sings in. Those guys have been spreading a trail of grime for close to a decade now, and their last album came out on the underground metal powerhouse Relapse. But Crumer is also known for his extensive work with heavy, harsh electronic noise, working under his own name as well as with Amazing Grace and American Band. American Bands First Album lays it all out - Crumer is joined by Matt Franco from Air Conditioning on guitar, vocals, and electronics, and Lee Counts on "metal", for this particular group's debut. This is HEAVY STUFF. You know how alot of noise outfits will have a really long, epic piece as their last track on an album? Well, American Band start out with one, the 22 minute "Bone Skirt", a titanic noise wall of churning static, blistering distortion coming in waves, and what we think are monstrous, death metal style roars submerged deep in the metallic hurricane. Could be anything tho I guess...that track is so fucking overloaded that, like all good harsh walls of noise, it starts to mess with your ability to make out details, and the whole experience turns into a whirlpool of melted rust and exploding steel slabs. Great use of feedback on here, too, really textured and menacing sounding, especially when American Band ease up on the vicious noise and settle into one of their super eerie dronescapes, huge open spaces of minimal midnight whirr where you can just make out the terrifying whine of a distant air raid siren. They use similiar dynamics throughout the rest of the album, making this a solidly engaging work of brutal noise sculpture, comparable to what it might sound like if the blastfurnace feedback storms of outfits like Cherry Point and The Rita were offset by drifting Troum style drones. Packaged in a full-color, 4-panel digipack.