Album Review: Fat Guy Wears Mystic Wolf Shirt - Dys/Closure

Riffing at the more technical side of metal is often associated with empty guitar acrobatics and studio trickery, especially as the scene gets increasingly glutted with copycat bedroom projects relying on drum machines and second-hand riffs from Meshuggah and Dream Theater. So, amongst all this empty digital perfection, the Central Coast's awesomely-named Fat Guy Wears Mystic Wolf Shirt are like a refreshing beer after a long day, here to slake your thirst with a welcome schoonerful of punky grindcore.

But don't go thinking that their latest record, Dys/Closure, is easy listening. The production is raw and it's going to take more than a few listens to navigate metallic jungle of gnarled riffs and jarring tempo shifts. Most of the songs fly past in less than a minute, so blink and you'll miss the cool details that set the band apart so many of their metal brethren. Like the way that N Equals and Instrumental break up the relentless attack by nursing chiming post-punk guitars among the requisite blastbeats. Or how Within closes the record out with some epic gang vocals, riding atop a droning stoner-rock groove. And when they pare back the experimentation for some street-level spazzery, FGWMWS are fucking vicious.  Home Truths and Overcompensate show they can blast and heave with the best of them.

While the band's debt to modern, angular riffmasters like Pig Destroyer and The Dillinger Escape Plan is obvious, Dys/Closure feels passionate and well-schooled rather than derivative. On top of their solid songwriting chops, the band's DIY-punk spirit and oddball grindbloke sensibility is a breath of fresh air in a style that could afford to take itself a little less seriously from time to time.