ALBUM REVIEW: Into Dust – -(16)-
-(16)- are miserable, and they really, really want you to know about it. Although they initially sound like they were dredged from the swamps of New Orleans, this band of morose miscreants actually hail from Los Angeles, California – though that still makes plenty of sense. Mired in pollution and smog, with less a divide between rich and poor and more a yawning chasm, it’s a city where the haves live well and the have-nots struggle through the quagmire of existence often without even the shirts on their backs.
Often quoted as one of sludge’s seminal outfits alongside luminaries such as CROWBAR and EYEHATEGOD, -(16)- also draw on the hardcore scene, citing influences from BAD BRAINS as well as fellow Californians METALLICA. Those comparisons are certainly apt on ninth album Into Dust, and there’s more than a little of the latter’s soloing flair and melodies such as on Ash In The Hour Glass, though opener Misfortune Teller – which shares its name with a song by fellow sludge sluggers DOWN – is all New Orleans swamp and dirge.
There are some choices that make little sense; after the opening trifecta of Misfortune Teller, Dead Eyes and Ash In The Hour Glass, the band opt for an atmospheric interlude in The Deep that does nothing save stall the momentum they’d built so far. Thankfully, Scrape The Rocks knows how to kick back into gear with its crushing guitar tone and drumming that feels perilously close to coming off the rails. Fortunately to counteract moments like that, there are ones that do work and elevate the songs. Null And Eternal Void features grungy cleaner vocals that add an extra layer of uncomfortable grime, while The Floor Wins feels deliriously nihilistic and on the verge of bursting its seams into a full-fledged death metal rampage.
None of Into Dust is pleasant, but sludge was never meant to be. A way of vomiting forth the ills and trials of life, it offered bands like -(16)- an escape and a way to dissect and process the negativity that surrounded and permeated life. It’s a simple truth that much of the best sludge draws on personal hells; -(16)- know this and lean into it, expanding that remit to tell the stories of the downtrodden and the forgotten. The arc begins with an eviction notice served amid the ruins of Hurricane Irma in Florida, visits the poverty-stricken and starving Mexico-California border, and culminates with a bleak portrayal of alcoholism in Born On A Bar Stool.
That closer in particular is a sobering affair; tinged with jazz and sorrow, it’s initially a sonic curveball but soon ends back in familiar territory, at the bottom of the bottle and surrounded by demons. Looking at Into Dust in 2022 is an interesting proposition; alongside fellow pioneers CROWBAR, the band’s sound has barely altered, just introduced the odd layer here or there, but they’ve remained firmly rooted in sludge for thirty years. It makes them both dated and anachronistic; its dirge-like misanthropy never gets old or loses its power, but equally there’s much more that could be done with the genre that newer bands are in fact doing. On solely its own merits though? Into Dust, and by extension-(16)- themselves, remain a stalwart reminder that while we might age and the years might change, misery never gets old.
Rating: 7/10
Into Dust is out now via Relapse Records.
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