The Sawtooth Grin - Cuddlemonster

Labels: Dead By 1918/Wax Vessel

Formats: CD/Vinyl/Digital

Release Date: 2001 (CD)/04 Oct 2019 (Vinyl/Digital)

Tracklist:

1. Give Me The Amulet You Bitch

2. A 2 Minute Lecture On The Finer Points Of Instability

3. Sometimes She Tasted Like Burnt Plastic Smells

4. Meat Hook Marty & The Pajama Party

5. Please Shit All Over Me, I Love It

6. Satan Would Sit In The Smoking Section But He Doesn't Like The Creepy Waiter

7. Good Touch Bad Touch 123

Having written about three of the four Wax Vessel reissues I own (still got Dr. Acula to review), I figured I'd carry on. As with the other's so far, I missed out on The Sawtooth Grin when they originally released Cuddlemonster. The reissue sold out so fast and is now only available via sellers on Discogs. The band started life in 1999 before releasing this EP in 2001 on cd via Dead By 1918, then followed it up with the Pervavor EP in 2004. 205 copies of this EP were pressed on single-sided vinyl by Wax Vessel last year and there were some amazing looking colour-ways, as per usual.

I promise I’ll get onto some newer stuff once I’ve written about this. ‘Give Me The Amulet You Bitch’ is overwhelming straight off the bat. Ridiculously fast, grinding and heavy, but with a nod to post-hardcore and vocals that are as piercing as anything The Body could do. It takes as long to type the song titles out as it does for TSG to play them. ‘A 2 Minute Lecture On The Finer Points Of Instability’ picks up right where the opener left off and just goes for it! I can only imagine how mesmerising this band would have been live, as their energy must have been intense.

TSG were obviously big fans of gaming, as Cuddlemonster is brimming with those kinds of samples, like at the start of ‘Sometimes She Tasted Like Burnt Plastic Smells’, which makes use of so many tempos and crazy riffs, as well as more of a metal vibe in places.’Meat Hook Marty & The Pajama Party’ only just broaches past the one-minute mark but it’s enough trust me! I don’t mean that disrespectfully at all, it’s just that it’s such an extreme and abrasive song that too much will really be too much. For a trio, TSG make a lot of noise.

The amusingly titled ‘Please Shit All Over Me, I Love It’ is the longest track on the EP and with that, the most experimental too. It contains fast parts, slow parts, breakdowns and a total descent into madness along the way. Everything you’d expect from a mathcore band really. Not much comes close to the grin it creates on your face. Almost instantly afterwards, you’re thrust straight into ’Satan Would Sit In The Smoking Section But He Doesn’t Like The Creepy Waiter’ and before you know it the penultimate song is over. It doesn’t stick around long but it will stick in your head!

Final song ‘Good Touch Bad Touch 123’ sounds positively radio-friendly when compared to the rest of the album. The chilled-out surf-rock style guitar riffs and steady tempo is unexpected. It’s variation that goes a long way on a record that’s this extreme and abrasive in sound. That being said, it is hugely entertaining.

You can stream and purchase Cuddlemonster digitally below:-

The Sawtooth Grin - https://www.facebook.com/thesawtoothgrin/

Wax Vessel - https://www.facebook.com/waxvesselchicago/