“Hey guys… I guess that’s it.”
Devourment, Extermination Dismemberment, PeelingFlesh, Guttural Slug, Torsofuck, Parasitic Ejaculation, Short Bus Pile Up, Medic Vomiting Pus, Rectoplasm, Truckstop Dickpill, Buttholectomy, and Infectious Jelqing. Now that the brain rot has come to a nice and steady boil, welcome to our slam review.
This particular brand of metal has a longstanding reputation for violating brain cells to the point of cognitive impairment. Rife with sophomoric samples, down-tuned strings, and vocals akin to gargling copious amounts of Listerine, its listeners are often just as thick as the music itself. Then again, is that not the appeal of it? Whether any of us are willing to admit it or not, descent into mental density is an irrevocable part of slam’s ironic, or perhaps unironic, charm. Consistently short song lengths only further pique the interest of man’s modern ADHD cranium, too. While understandably overlooked due to many of us likely being closeted sharpie sniffers in elementary school, there’s more to this than just juvenile sound bites.
The fact is, slam, in a purely sonic vacuum, is absurdly heavy, more often than not. Instrumental sensibilities aside, this is also indicative of a historical lack of variation. We all know what to expect at this point. Open with a Beavis and Butt-Head clip, commence a half-tempo chug, speed things up at the bridge, breakdown intertwined with hip-hop and/or George Bush’s talking points, end sequence. Have any of us ever complained? Of course not. The aforementioned is the true essence of slam. If a few IQ points haven’t been dropped by the end of a song, it hasn’t been done right. To that end, it seems this sphere of acetone-laced influence has merged off in a direction devoid of any humor, courtesy of the great and powerful tandem of Hunter Young and Dave Mustrange, and simply aims to commit audial sodomy. DROWNED UNDER CONCRETE’s towed-along-the-highway-by-rope debut in 1444 isn’t your run-of-the-mill, fuck-your-sister slam. This time around, your entire corporeal being will be reduced to nothingness by way of Young and Mustrange’s anathema for absurdity, only to be outweighed by a penchant for seething destruction.
1444 is inherently unique for the simple fact that it doesn’t resign itself to slam’s traditional comic relief. Bass drops, pinch harmonics, hardcore breakdowns, and Young sucking cement through a creased straw on the mic are plastered throughout. As no track eclipses three minutes, 1444 can be consumed in spurts just as easily as it could wholesale. Unsurprisingly, Digital Ghost Audio‘s signature production exponentially increases the suffocating mass of 1444, despite a lean twenty-minute runtime. All established qualities of slam notwithstanding, perhaps the lone absence of vibe-swinging hysterics was all that was needed to create something truly different. With DROWNED UNDER CONCRETE’s simplistic yet effective approach to substituting habitual blast beats in lieu of adult film dialogue, it certainly feels like this is the closest we’ve come to brutal slam in the most literal sense.
Another key separator for 1444, as opposed to its contemporaries, is a clear favorability for increased pace. A good bit of slam is flat-out half-speed, which is also fine. It’s yet another distinguishable aspect that makes it bludgeoning. However, DROWNED UNDER CONCRETE kicks it into ten-thousandth gear in terms of cadence. “Unalive Leak”, “Involuntary Vehicular Masonry”, and “Barbwire Tourniquet” exemplify this in spades, whilst still leaving plenty of room for brake-shattering slipshod breakdowns. It does not matter what velocity 1444 is traveling at during any juncture of its killing spree. If you’re a seasoned veteran or just beginning to indulge in this arena of neanderthal fixation, every waking second of 1444 is black market musical dissection chock full of live machine gun drums and bend-over-and-get-fucked riffs.
There’s an undeniable groove to DROWNED UNDER CONCRETE’s debut, as well. Young and Mustrange incorporate hooks that will leave us wondering whether we should bust an orphan or bust a move. Regardless, if you try to pull off an uncoordinated salsa dance without tripping over your five-day-old Papa John’s garlic knots to “Sublingual Cyanide”, or consider committing atrocities after hearing the chugs of “Immersed in Excrement”, 1444 offers up a full menu of brutal death metal appetizers that all combine into a balls-to-the-fucking-wall slamming entrée. “Hydrosomaxan”, “Oragami Blood Eagle”, and the titular track are just as well-prepared.
Slam is among the heaviest of heavy music, that is irrefutable. It’s also not to be taken seriously in most cases, this cannot be argued either. That creates a rather peculiar dilemma for those who want no part of being laughed at. As it turns out, the solution is rather superficial. Remove the Borat one-liners, and you have something that would be much more difficult to ridicule. DROWNED UNDER CONCRETE has set the precedent for aspiring slam bands and current practitioners alike. Cut the bullshit, and everything else will fall into place. 1444 is not only one of the best releases for this highly niche subgenre in 2025, but arguably holds solidified grounds for being a quintessential debut and a model exemplar for slam as a whole.
9.5/10
1444 releases on August 29 via Wax Vessel and can be pre-ordered in limited quantities here.