Call me opinionated if you like – it’s my job to dispense opinions, so I don’t really care – but TAD were surely one of the only authentic grunge bands to have existed. Period. Grimy, sweaty, angry music, hewn from thick, overdriven guitar riffs by regular guys in check shirts, Tad Doyle and his cohorts epitomised the blue-collar roots of what came to be grunge, and despite landing a deal with Warner subsidiary Giant Records, they never really sold out or cleaned up their sound. They weren’t afraid of running into grief, either: check ‘Jack Pepsi’ and the original cover art to ‘8 Way Santa’. TAD had balls. C’mon, they even called their first album ‘God’s Balls’. So it’s nice to see Tad Doyle present on the first Lumbar album, released by the mighty Southern Lord. This monster trio, the brainchild of Aaron Edge (Himsa, Iamthethorn, Roareth, Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth) is rounded off with Mike Scheidt (YOB) and it ain’t grunge. It’s way, way heavier.
At times sounding like Melvins in purgatory, Godflesh in the grinder, Sabbath on Ketamine while having their balls pulled into an industrial shredder, the bass is so low as to be subsonic, the guitars a sonic landslide. The quieter passages offer no levity, and are dark and claustrophobic, and the rest brings droning sludge of guitar heavy enough to bury the bulk of the vocals. With one ear keenly attuned to 70s metal and the other deafened by Sunn O))), Lumbar bring the trudge (and nods to Ennio Morricone).
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‘The First And Last Days Of Unwelcome’ is a monume(n)tal document of doom, rendered all the more poignant by the diagnosis of Edge’s multiple sclerosis rendering this his last musical work due to massive debility.
It’s one hell of a sign-off for Edge if it does prove to be his final recording. Seven tracks, seven days of unwelcome, seven days of pain and purgatory... and a killer album.
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