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Primitive Man “Bag Man” + Full EP Review

In perhaps one of my all time favorite quotes, Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote that “he who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” Open to interpretation according to one’s philosophical leanings and situation, those two lines have stuck with me over the years and have been applied to various personal situations. Well, I stared into the abyss again the other night and found Denver’s Primitive Man staring right back at me; they were not happy with what they saw. Let it be known beforehand, that while I’ve known about this band for some time, I’ve never checked them out. Honestly, they just somehow missed being on my radar. In my line of business, which is really just drinking beer, listening to music and being a slave to the coffee machine, this was a serious error on my part. One that has been quickly corrected upon having my chest cavity caved in and and stuffed with shit while hearing this savage, heretical release. 

Their newest offering, which is put out by legendary label Relapse Records (Pre-Order HERE!), is entitled Home Is Where The Hatred Is and is available February 17th. If there was ever a more accurate description of an album, this would be it. A four song EP that drags your corpse across a field of broken glass, razor wire and repressed memories over the course of thirty-one terrifying minutes. A substantial amount of cranial damage will almost certainly occur while listening to this release, as represented by the first track, “Loathe.” Primitive Man open up this cancerous offering with a blast of feedback and drums, while the guitars slowly build up in anticipation of decimating the very landscape we walk on. For the next eleven minutes, one is continually abused by their output, with fiendish vocals mocking all that profess to worship a divine being. What grabbed my attention the most was the use of chaotic blast beats through portions of the song. That being said, it seems that this band has a number of tricks up their sleeve and it shows instantly on this first song. A plodding, almost methodical torture is exacted throughout the rest of this song, and proves that this is a band capable of annihilating the very concept of what “heavy” is. 

“Downfall” picks the pace up a bit from the start, bringing forth a sonic tornado composed of broken flesh and bone. A vicious onslaught of hatred, they batter and pummel throughout the first few minutes, until settling back down into the Doom side of their sound, gleefully surveying the destruction and carnage they have unleashed. Primitive Man show an aptitude for swinging between tempo and palettes, which is to say alternating between the sound of a late night riot and the darkened, back alley behind the scene of unfolding chaos at hand. It’s always a pleasure to hear something that can straddle the lines between two different styles with such flawless execution, and this song pulls it off. Taking cues from previous Doom, Black Metal and Crust-tinged projects before them, Primitive Man breathe fetid life into this sound, making it their very own. Pulling the weight that is Doom Metal along with a bass-heavy Black Metal sound is no easy feat; Primitive Man have shown that they are capable of concocting this lethal cocktail and serving it to us with a rotting, blackened smile. 

Unlike the first two songs on this EP, the third track, “Bag Man,” dives head first into the Doom Metal side of things and doesn’t look back nor withhold any punches. The guitar and vocal work sound like a drunken, verbally abusive stepfather on a horrible night’s drunken bender, with the drums crashing and clanking over and over again like a bottle of whiskey being slammed down onto the kitchen table repeatedly. It’s slow, crushing and a textbook example of what properly executed Doom Metal should sound like. Overall, these three songs show an ability to draw from a number of different sounds within the slower to mid-pace spectrum of metal, fusing them together in a liturgy of disgust for this world. As I stated earlier, this was my first real exposure to this band; they slammed my head against a wall throughout these three songs and over the course of writing this review, leaving me craving more of their profane hymns. 

“A Marriage of Nothingness” is the final, instrumental track on this beast; which led me to the conclusion that Clive Barker needs to direct another Hellraiser movie with Primitive Man composing the soundtrack. Seriously. It’s a rather uncomfortable noise-filled segment with adulterous, sexual gasps filling out its duration, while feedback and a rather creepy guitar melody slide their nicotine-stained fingertips up your significant other’s thigh. A fitting finale for the ruination they have wrought on this output. It leaves one looking around the room questioning what happens behind the closed doors of your neighbors as the record closes out. This is an absolute Albert Fish style-killer of a release, which will leave you dragging their vile, hate-filled sound across your wrists for the next few weeks. A solid, almost shocking offer from an up and coming project, one that spurred me on to check out their full length Scorn with much anticipation . If you’ve yet to uncover this absolutely disgusting act, get your shit together and buy this. After your initial exposure to Primitive Man’s plague, feel free to send the hospital bill over to CVLT Nation for subjecting you to this vile, life crushing band.

PRIMITIVE MAN TOUR DATES:
3/30/2015 Unicorn – London, UK w/ Sea Bastard
3/31/2015 TBA – Nottingham, UKw/ Sea Bastard
4/01/2015 Roadhouse – Manchester, UKw/ Sea Bastard
4/02/2015 South Sea Live – Sheffield, UKw/ Sea Bastard
4/03/2015 South Sea Live – Newcastle, UKw/ Sea Bastard
4/04/2015 Audio – Glasgow, UKw/ Sea Bastard
4/05/2015 Bannermans – Edinburgh, UKw/ Sea Bastard
5/16/2015 TBA – Omaha, NE w/ Wake
5/17/2015 The Black Hole – Cedar Falls, IA w/ Wake
5/18/2015 Skeletunes Lounge – Fortwayne, IN w/ Wake
5/19/2015 The Sanctuary – Detroit, MI w/ Wake
5/20/2015 Now That’s Class – Cleveland, OH w/ Wake
5/21 – 5/25/2015 Maryland Death Fest – Baltimore, MD
5/26/2015 Strange Matter – Richmond, VA
5/27/2015 TBA – Dayton, OH
5/28/2015 The Demo – St. Louis, MO
5/29/2015 Flux Capacitor – Colorado Springs, CO