Hog Molly - Kung Fu Cocktail Grip
Kool Arrow Records

By Ben Ohmart (more articles from this author) 2001-05-29

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Artist: Hog Molly
Title: Kung Fu Cocktail Grip
Label: Kool Arrow Records (www.koolarrow.com)
Genre: Metal

For some reason, I seem to get the really LOUD groups to review early in the morning. Quite a rush. Hog Molly is that kind of band that sounds like it's already late for work. And they're hurryin'. They're hurryin'.

While this isn't the kinda stuff I listen to for pure enjoyment's sake, I must say that, like the Beatles, even those not enamored of their charm will suddenly find themselves caught up in the dense, murky perfume of their violent city of songs, without the least inhibition of standing around while the beating takes place.

Beat. Yeah, drums, wire guitar and a stripped throat that knows no shame: that's our boys. Like The Young Ones, doing it for drama, not comedy's sake. Not to mention some Death Praxis, Marilyn Manson, Celtic Frost, Crisis and other rough bands peering out now and then through the pain and destruction exorcised here.

'Why did you tell me when you didn't have to tell me / I'm just standing around looking like a fucking bitch / Like a fucking bitch' from 'Bitchslapper' is one of my favorites, for the words. Love 'em.

Musicwise, 'Hogchronicity' is pretty hard to conquer. It's got the best opening on the cd; a race between drums and guitars, with some flooding drum rolls, skillfully released, like grabbing a porcupine. Rugged stuff. Doesn't last long, like 2 and a half minutes, but how could anyone survive longer?

The power that is 'Paycheck' ends with 'I must kill you / Cause I love you / put a stake through your heart.' This, after asking a couple times earlier, 'Who signs your paycheck?' Exalted guitar lick to this one, as deep as you can get, probably a bass digging way down inside of it.

Bottom line: dark alley, very scary music (to the uninitiated, like myself) that gives no quarter; strong, gifted musicians who distribute metal like some sort of demented knife salesman.

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