Come To Grief/Fistula - Split 7"

Tracklist:

1. Come To Grief - Take Me In My Sleep

2. Fistula - Contusion

This is the first of six (yes six!) split 7"s featuring the mighty Fistula and friends. This one includes original songs from both Fistula and fellow doom/sludge band Come To Grief, formed out the ashes of seminal doom band Grief. Both the 7" and a tape version have been released via PATAC Records. Grief formed in 2014 and has so far released a single and an EP earlier this year. Fistula has been consistently playing super solid doom/sludge since before the turn of the Millennium, appearing on countless splits amongst their extensive back catalogue. 

Come To Grief is harrowing on Take Me In My Sleep. The slow and heavy percussion, bass-heavy riffs and harsh screams are exactly what you’d expect from a band of their pedigree, but there’s also a natural feel to it all. Their music is not over-complicated and the song crawls through six-and-a-half minutes without losing you as a listener. I’m a big fan of sludge/doom so this ticks all the boxes for me so far. It’s nasty (in the best possible way).

On the b-side Fistula’s Contusion is equally as lurching and heavy but it also contains more of a metallic edge in the guitars. While Come To Grief comes across as being very despairing, Fistula proceeds to hammer the final ounce of belief and life out of you, at least until the three-and-a-half minute mark when they launch into a groovy passage, which is fantastic. They transfer between different time-signatures with ease and each time the atmosphere changes to match.

It’s so easy for splits like this to sound too samey but both Come To Grief and Fistula have injected their musical personalities into it. The former brings you down and the latter is more upbeat, but they’re both very adept at what they do and I can see that this split series in gonna be a whole lot of heavy. 

Both 7" and tape versions were officially released yeaterday and you can pick them up via PATAC Records here - https://www.patacrecords.com. Currently the split is not available for streaming, as far as I can tell (please correct me if I'm wrong).

I'll be writing reviews of all of the splits in this series as they're released. The 16/Fistula split review will be up next, probably next week.

Come To Grief - https://www.facebook.com/extremesludge/

Fistula - https://www.facebook.com/fistula666/

PATAC Records - https://www.facebook.com/patacrecords/