The Bristle Sound

Sometimes you get a demo from a band called something like Beard Of Zeuss, and just know you'll be in provincial unsigned hard rock purgatory...and then it turns out to be quite good fun. At the very least, provincial unsigned hard rock purgatory is more intriguing than global mass marketed hard rock hell, eh, kids? Blaaagh.

BEARD OF ZEUSS – DEMO


Never let it be said that we consider lavish recording to be essential for good music. God knows we’ve heard more than enough demos on which hours of studio time have entirely failed to mask a complete lack of musical ability. Still, the new recording from the excellently mis-spelled Beard Of Zeuss is so lo-fi we feel we ought to just scribble this review on a sheet of bog roll and nail it to a small tree, rather than disseminate it efficiently through the internet, just to get our own back. However, once we’ve fought past the “minidisc in a corner” production values, it becomes evident that BOZ make a very pleasant – if deeply unoriginal – rock noise.

The Beard’s postal address is in Enstone, but we begin to wonder whether this isn’t a typo for Eynsham, so neatly does the music resemble the sludged up grungecore that has spilt from that area over the past few years. The songs follow a simple blueprint: clumping metal rhythms drenched with huge grubby riffs that are the aural equivalent of radioactive industrial sludge, all topped off with a sort of Texan barroom growl grunting on about…well, frankly, we’ve not the foggiest. Like we say, nothing you haven’t heard before, but BOZ have plenty of power in their sound, and manage to hold the attention despite the woeful recording. Though, sadly “Medieval Rape Song” doesn’t sound as good on record as it did in our head. So, we’ll give them a tentative thumbs up for now, and sit back to wait for a proper demo…or, we suspect, a live sampling would probably get the point across better. Perhaps just after some sort of Speed Bourbon Guzzling Pageant might be the ideal slot.

Speaking of booze, ultimately BOZ are like homebrewed hillbilly hooch: unrefined and ugly, but intoxicating all the same. The indecipherable vocal “Blaaagh” that closes track one pretty much sums up the dumb appeal of this demo, and Zeus knows there are plenty of pompous recordings in the world that could be livened up with a well placed “blaaagh”.