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Mudslinger - Cover the Sun
Mudslinger - Cover the Sun
Lord Slog (Independent) - 2001
By Rodrigo
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Cover the Sun is the new release by the independent Oakland band Mudslinger. It is their first release and they have gathered quite a positive buzz on the Internet thanks to the fact that people have downloaded their songs on MP3.com. Their music is a combination of death, doom, sludge and trash elements. Juan Urteaga does the vocals and mainly signs in a slow, growling, death-like manner. At times there are some clean vocals and some screaming parts but he mostly stays in the same range. The guitar work by Dave Couch is very crunchy and heavy but lacks more skill. There are very few leads and solos in the music, which would have helped tremendously. The music mostly stays in a doom/sludge tempo with occasional up-tempo trashy passages but those moments are very few and that is where I find the main problem with Mudslinger.
After a few listens to Cover the Sun, I really could not remember anything distinct about each song. The reason why is because they are all basically the same. There is no variety in the music and it gets pretty boring after a while. The songs are all pretty long with the exception of "Cold" and they should have been shorter because in the end they all get repetitive. I mentioned "Cold" just know and not only is it the shortest song but also the best song because it is different than the other songs. It is a trashier song and it works really well. Maybe Mudslinger should try writing songs that feature this tempo more.
The production of Cover the Sun is good. The main focus is on the guitars. The vocals at times are hard to understand because they get lost in the sound but the drumming by Ronn Pifer is powerful and the bass of Lars Van Löwen is also good. In the end Cover the Sun, is a little disappointing because the band shows talent and promise but they need to develop as songwriters. They have some great ideas in many of the songs but I think that they need to add more diversity to their music. This is only the starting point but Mudslinger has the ability to be a better band.
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