He Whose Ox Is Gored have been one of my favorite sludge mtal bands for a while now. Their unique brand of prog inspired sludge is stunning featuring a variety of vocal styles, incredibly complex instrumental lines and some fascinating, very weird synth parts that are latered on top to create something truly special. This latest offering, a seven inch featuring a single recorded by the legendary grunge producer, Jack Endino, toss in a couple remixes from some of the bands friends and you've got something special.
With sludge metal it's often hard to imagine the music outside of its typical forms. It's a genre that is so often married to simplicity that when something comes in that blows the entire thing away like Paralyzer does it sometimes takes a few spins to wrap your head around. One of the most fascinating parts of He Whose Ox Is Gored has been hearing their progression over the last few years and while Paralyzer certainly is one of their weirdest offerings to date it's also one that you can't help but to fall in love with. It shows us a whole new scope to a band that we all love and inspires bold new directions for the genre.
It's rare to find something in a genre as conservative as sludge metal that simply breaks through so mny tropes, and I get that these are remixes and that's in many ways the point of this seven inch, but when a band like He Whose Ox Is Gored come out, a band who have been such an integral part of the underground for so long it becomes even more beautiful and strangely charming to sink your teeth into. This is a band who have never let their sound be dictated by the conventional rules and Paralyzer is the latest and greatest example of that.
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