Gern Blanston is sort grungy alternative, an early 90s flannel mosh scenario. I always wanted to like this dark, brooding, chugga chugga style with the long feedback notes and distorted vocals more than I do. It's kind of industrial tinged without the electronics, I guess? Lots of hair twirling moshers stomping around in a muddy field somewhere. To double down on this feeling, they do a little vocal incantation mid-song and then slow down even more, chugging through while the singer makes weird faces and probably holds hist fist out until the drums do a thing and we're back to mid tempo and some strange rhythmic bits, finally ending on a minor note before a long pause and a sample from The Simpson's (Apu, which is... problematic). Weird.

I picked this up because a friend really likes Thirty Ought Six and he has good taste usually... A build starts with the bass and drums, a little vocals, and some guitar feedback for a few seconds, before a quick pause and we get what feels like some authentic anger. The vocals are through gritted teeth and and a snarl, but interesting things are happening rhythmically and musically between and around this rage. Weird drum breaks and fills and massively distorted guitar get the brain thinking, but then the vocals take a back seat for a while and there's a bit of a too-long jam session where we lose the pace. Then that angry vocalist returns for a bit as the song reaches the end. You can tell there's some training behind that voice. It's kind of like the best snarling of the grunge era, maybe not quite Chris Cornell, but well within control at the loudest volume. It's really the highlight, but the song needs more than some solid angry vocals to sell me on the band completely. Definitely the best track of the single, but would I buy more Thirty Ought Six? Yeah, probably. I'm a sucker for records.

If you like this review, you can buy me a coffee.