This slab of hideous abject sludge is now in stock on Cd...

Are you a total addict for slow, ugly, sludgy metal? If so, I would like to introduce you to the best sludge-metal band you've probably never heard of. You'd think that having Anal Cunt's Seth Putnam in the band would have gotten them a little more attention than they received, but even I had never heard these guys before I saw them play with Upsidedown Cross when their tour took them through Maryland in early 2011. Before they played, I was half expecting some kind of idiotic punk rock to come spilling off the stage; I mean, 'Full Blown AIDS"? Didn't seem promising. And then they began playing, and Full Blown AIDS proceeded to stomp the living shit out of my skull for about twenty five minutes straight.

With Putnam on guitar and lead vocals, the trio stumbles through a mangled, ridiculously down tuned assault of filthy doomslop, Putnam delivering his vocals in a terrifying screech that's pretty close to his delivery in Anal Cunt. But the vibe with Full Blown AIDS seems deadly serious in comparison to his main gig, spewing a endless stream of invectives and verbal hatred and self-loathing on songs like "Leech", "No One Cares", "It's All Fake", "Trash Picker", and "Vacancy", the music a mix of noisy, sludgy hardcore riffs slowed down to a grueling crawl, punishing mid-tempo hardcore assaults and crazed slow-motion grind. Remember how fucking heavy and ugly those old Floor 7"s sounded, with the "bomb string" riffs? Well, Seth had a similar style of playing here, his guitar barely in tune as he slings these utterly massive three chord riffs around, the guitar distorted almost to the point of total noise. The Sabbath-inspired gutter sludge-punk of bands like Upsidedown Cross and Kilslug would seem to be one of the main influences on Full Blown AIDS, but this is a hundred times heavier than either, and a hundred times more savage as well. They also do a cover of "For Those About To Rock", but it's not nearly as fun as you would think it would be...

The double Lp Viral Load is one of the few releases that Full Blown AIDS left behind before Putnam's sudden death last year, a collection of songs that were recorded live at the Church in Boston (the same place where that Kilslug reunion album that we have in stock was also recorded) along with a handful of "studio" tracks recorded on an old four-track deck. First released as a massive two-record set on Limited Appeal, this limited-edition Cd version of Viral Load was issued by the Satanic Skinhead experimental/noise sub-label Audial Decimation. Highly recommended if you're into true hate-sludge a la Grief, Eyehategod, Kilslug, Upsidedown Cross, Toadliquor and Brainbombs...