Disastroid: Mortal Fools

Disastroid’s sludgy, grunge aesthetic is deceptive. Their sound will be instantly familiar to anyone who spent any chunk of their youth wearing flannel and listening to TAD, The Melvins, and Gruntruck. But lurking beneath that filthy grunge surface are song structures that are surprisingly progressive.

Album opener ‘8HR Parking’ sounds at first like a straightforward grunge ripper. Then just when you think you know what Disastroid are all about, the band shifts gears with a Voivod-esque breakdown at the 2 minute mark that goes straight-up progressive sludge.

Another pleasant surprise is singer/guitarist Enver Koneya, whose voice evokes the grizzly bear roars of Paw’s Mark Hennessy and Ben McMillan of the aforementioned Gruntruck (man, I used to love me some Gruntruck back in the day). And like those classic grunge frontmen before him, Koneya brings more than just spit and fury to his delivery. When the band slows down on tracks like ‘Hopeless’ and ‘Deep Well’, his voice takes on a soulful quality that adds much-appreciated depth to the music.

But for the most part, Disastroid operates in the realm of seething grunge meets desert rock, meets slightly mathy noise rock. ‘Insect Mind’, for example, sounds a bit like Paw covering a lost Jesus Lizard song, while ‘Space Rodent’ has a drugged-out, early QOTSA feel to it. If the band has a weakness, it’s that they don’t push against the edges of these genres even harder. The most exciting and memorable moments on the album are when the band dabbles with a more progressive approach.

But I will be careful what I wish for. Mortal Fools hits a pretty sweet spot for me, and many a band have gone off the deep end when they should have stayed in familiar waters. Their distorted, bass-driven rhythms and buzzing lead guitars channel the best the 90’s had to offer—all in the service of consistently great songs.