Stomach - Demo

Labels: Practiced Hatred Fanzine & Records/Dry Cough Records

Formats: Tape/Digital

Release Date: 14 Jan 2022

Tracklist:-

1. Deserve

2. Loom

3. Oil

4. Delirium Of Negation

The dark, dingy nights of (very) early November have hit me hard. To stave off the long winter days ahead, I'm going to be reaching for heavier and darker music like that which appears on the debut demo from US sludge band Stomach. This demo was originally released on tape back in January via US fanzine/label Practiced Hatred Records before UK label Dry Cough Records did a pressing in March. Stomach has links to some fairly well known US grind/pv bands, but that's all I'm going to say on the matter as I want you to treat them on their own merit if you're hearing them for the first time.

This tape definitely harks back to the earlier releases from Dry Cough Records (whom I purchased a copy from). It’s slow, sludgy but with occasional blasts of pace on opener ‘Deserve’. The instrumentation is very bass-heavy and is laden with feedback. The percussion is much more akin to funeral doom in it’s delivery and the vocals are used sparingly, but when they are they’re scathing. The further you get into the song, the more drone-like it becomes.

‘Loom’ is the antithesis of ‘Deserve’ with it’s noisy, fast stop/start approach that ushers in a new and stark era of powerviolence. It’s an intense auditory experience that seems to come and go very quickly, especially given that the demo’s other three songs combined reach nearly thirty minutes. ’Oil’ is as thick as it’s viscous namesake sound-wise. Again, taking it’s cues from the slower end of doom/sludge, it’s harrowing tones are filled with yet more feedback and gargling bass. Is it too early to say that this demo rules? Whatever, I’ve said it now! 

Demo closer ‘Delirium Of Negation’ takes things to an even deeper level, mixing the aforementioned slow/droning tempos with the noisier more frightening textures that were present on ‘Loom’, thus creating something that’s hard to turn away from. As with the preceding songs, this one is so downtuned that it makes Stomach sound even more miserable than longtime genre torchbearers Primitive Man. This demo is a bit of a game changer for me.

I do like taking plenty of time to listen to releases now before writing about them, which is something I haven’t done very frequently in the past. This demo has been a constant listen over the past few months especially. Just something about it keeps me coming back. There’s a full-length on the way at some point, so get yourselves prepared by spinning this if you haven’t done so already.

You can stream and purchase this demo digitally from Stomach below:-

Stomach - Instagram: @stomachdoom

Physical tape copies are still available from Dry Cough Records below:-

https://www.drycoughrecords.com/product/stomach-demo-cassette-dc56

Practiced Hatred Fanzine & Records - https://www.facebook.com/Practicedhatredfanzine

Dry Cough Records - https://www.facebook.com/DryCoughRecords