Biipiigwan - God's Hooks

Well, it's nearly the end of a stunningly hot weekend here in Yorkshire, so that means it's back to daily grind tomorrow. I thought I'd throw out one more review for you in the meantime. Biipiigwan hail from Ottawa in Ontario, Canada and have released God's Hooks via Handshake inc. It was released in February this year through Handshake Inc's Bandcamp page, but was originally released back in 2010.

Tracklist:-

1. Beaches
2. Vegemite
3. In War
4. God's Hooks
5. Crimson Sword
6. Rhett
7. B'il Sabab

Beaches is a furious amalgamation of hardcore infused metal, with sludgy/doomy undertones. Biipiigwan bring forth lots of musical variation and ideas, but allow the music to breathe so it doesn't become too confusing for the listener. The pace changes from frenetic to slow chug are done with aplomb!

Second song Vegemite is just like the spread of the same name; thick and dark in tone. The vocals here are fairly minimal, with Biipiigwan wanting their music to do the talking. When the vocals to reappear, they're rasping, drawn-out drawls of anger.

In War starts with a sole plucked bass, which adds a real sense of low end when the song kicks in, during the opening verse. This song is more mid paced and shows a lot more of the bands sludge influence. It's also the longest track in display here, which is probably not a surprise. The dual vocals and trance inducing riffs make for an oppressive experience. The subtle melodic riffs towards the end of In War add nice variation to the song and hint at sunlight coming through the haze that preceded it.

The title track features more experimentation at the start, with some jazzy, improv riffs that lead into the main body of the song. There's also more melody amongst the guitar here, but low chuggy instrumentation, a rhythm section that bounces along sporadically and more of those disparate growls balance it out.

Crimson Sword sounds like it should be a power metal ballad, but it so isn't! It's a raging piece of noise that forces you to headbang and fills your ears with cleverly written music, instead of cheese! Again, it's mostly instrumental but works really well; especially when the lead guitar is allowed to stretch it's legs and add some flare to the music.

Rhett is a grinding delight. A lot speedier and nastier sounding to begin with, before Biipiigwan settle back into their sludgy flow. B'il Sabab closes it out this record, with one final blast of sludgy goodness. It sounds pretty upbeat too, which kind of belays the atmosphere on the rest of God's Hooks. This record is great fun, and it seems the perfect record to help you relax and forget about the impending drudgery of the week to come. Another thoroughly satisfying slab of metal then!

Good news, you can stream God's Hooks via Handshake Inc's Bandcamp below:-


It's available as a name your price download there and also from Biipiigwan's own Bandcamp page at http://biipiigwan.bandcamp.com/. You can also pick up a CD version directly from Biipiigwan's BigCartel page at http://biipiigwan.bigcartel.com/.

Check them out and enjoy the rest of your weekend!