Grief were called doom-metal for some reason. In reality, it's more appropriate to describe them as sludge or, if you stretch your imagination, maybe a slowcore grind. I guess it's because their music is so heavy and depressing that people can't resist calling it doom. But if you look at the band's pictures or their cartoonish album covers, it's pretty obvious that they don't even know and don't give a rat's ass about doom as it is known to the fans of the European bands. Whatever the case may be, "Torso" is a massive, ugly monster of an album. The music is so slow, you have to check your pulse while listening to it to make sure that you are still alive. Grief's world view is so damn bleak, they drain every ounce of happiness out of you. By the end of the album you are totally convinced that you are nothing but a worthless piece of worthless shit in this worthless, fucked up world, and that there is nothing left to do but to kill yourself (good thing I don't have the balls to do it). "If there is life in outer space, take me away from this place. Beam me up, I'll volunteer. It can't be much worse than here." Come to think of it, this is as doom as doom gets with none of that sophisticated European crap, just hideously depressing and brutish heaviness. Play at your own risk.

© 2000 boris