Bezoar
Wyt Deth
No World Order Records

That’s it. You’ve convinced me, Brooklyn. You are now thee number one spot in the world for heavy, weird, fuzzy, psychedelic music. Okay? Hull, Elks, Bad Dream, Weird Owl, Children…and now Bezoar. I’m sure there’s plenty more rats crawling around in the sewers there that I’m not even aware of, but as far as I’m concerned right now, none of ‘em are bigger — or carry more diseases — than Bezoar. I mean, even their name invokes images of a mythical beast from children’s fables, and this three-headed varmint more than lives up to the hairy, red eye scares it promises. Expounding doom-infused wyt noize, Bezoar’s debut full-length, Wyt Deth, is a lumbering mess of feedback and mildewy riffs, a witchy, warbling deth-psych album that’s definitely hard to listen to, but surely impossible to turn off. Whether it’s the short and sweet allure of songs like “Burn Everything” and “Nikola” or the long and devastating hold of songs like “We Are Not Alone” and “Knight,” the whole damn thing is nauseously enchanting, and you might think it sounds like a dungeon full of hungry, dying prisoners moaning for sunlight, water, and mercy, but that’s just Sara Palmquist (bass/vocals), Tyler Villard (guitar), and Justin Sherrell (drums) laying down the most mystical stoner metal you’re likely to hear all year. Awesome stuff.

Listen to Wyt Deth in it’s entirety right here!

I had never heard of Dr. Aubrey de Grey until Broken Beard reader Jaki Cunha asked me, “Have you seen the beard on Dr. Aubrey de Grey?” His beard, she said, was like a beard on top of a beard. With all due respect to Ms. Cunha, that’s one hell of an understatement. The fact is, the good doctor’s beard is a majestic fur; it’s as if his face is wearing a dead fox. It’s a glorious, Yosemite Sam son-of-a-bitch the likes of which makes me weep with envy and astonishment. Dr. de Grey deals in gerontology, the study of aging, and is best known for his theories that aging can be abolished and that humans could possibly live much longer lives. If his beard is any indication of his science, this man is a fucking genius. Now, someone pass me a tissue, damn it.

My apologies to Hazzard’s Cure guitarist Leo Buckley for having to follow such an amazing opener, but I hope he takes it as a compliment and it inspires him to keep ‘er going. According to Hazzard’s Cure drummer Clint Baechle, Leo’s got the best beard in the band, and it’s now longer than it is in this picture. Well, that’s good enough for me! Best of luck growing that black beast, buddy!

Big Business
Quadruple Single
Gold Metal

About three years ago the dastardly duo of Jared Warren and Coady Willis brought in Toshi Kasai on guitar to, I suppose, fill out the Big Business sound. Frankly, I didn’t think there was anything Big Business needed to do because the heavy racket created by the bass and drums of Warren and Willis, respectively, was colossally fuzzy and beyond reproach. Well, now they’ve added a second guitarist, Scott Martin (400 Blows, Crom), to the payroll, giving this hydra one more head, and while the implications are this makes the beast all the more ferocious, it’s not entirely the case. What the four songs on this new EP, Quadruple Single (released on their own Gold Metal Records label), offer are heightened dynamics and structure, which, when talking about Big Business, might not inspire much confidence. However, Big Business are, and always will be, ruthless ogres, and so long as Warren continues to sing like he’s gnawing on the skull of every sweaty, bleeding-ear drunkard in the front row, you won’t have reason to lose confidence in ‘em. The band is at their best when they’re pummeling you black and bruised with thick cudgels of sludge, and there’s plenty of that kind of low-end love on board here, especially on “City Ham” and “Guns” (‘Guns are better than everything else!’). If anything, all the fret-raping screeches and squeals take some getting used to, and while “Always Never Know When to Quit” contains a turbulently gorgeous melody and “Ice-Cold War” places an unusual emphasis on the riff, they don’t reach through the speakers and tear your head from your neck. Big Business songs used to do that. At least half of ‘em do here; the others just slap you around a bit.

Listen to “City Ham” from Quadruple Single!