Flatwounds - Raw

I played with Flatwounds (wounds pronounced like injury, not like guitar string) at a church in New Brunswick as the lead guitarist for Possum in my Room. They were scrappy, intense, and reminded me a lot of Acid Bath. I met them at the merch table after the show and we got to talking about 90s metal and shoes and the Albany scene they came up in. I asked for a CD; they asked me which one I wanted. I asked them which one sounds the most like Acid Bath. They grinned and thrust Raw into my hands.

This is not Acid Bath worship - or, at least, it’s not solely Acid Bath worship. On their bandcamp, they describe themselves as “Heavy Grunge”. It seems like every Albany band these days loves Alice in Chains. I’ve seen AiC t-shirts on Drug Church, Soul Blind, and Sunbloc members. Flatwounds has a little Alice in Chains, but they have much more Bleach-era Nirvana to their sound, particularly Colin O’Hare’s vocals. The gnarly pinch-harmonics on the opener recollect Pantera as well. The mix sounds surprisingly good quiet, but it’s really best played loud on standalone speakers.

This five-song EP came to me scratchy and sticky. The insert is printer paper. The CD sticker is also made of a slightly higher grade of paper. The best album packages reflect their covers, and this does just that: Raw is shitty in the best kind of way. It kicks ass when the vocals aren’t in the same key as the guitars. It kicks ass that the bass is so deep it eats the kick drum alive except for the death-metal clicking. It kicks ass that the Boss Metal Zone guitar (often singletracked like a true warrior!) kind of drags behind the rest of the instruments on some tracks. I’m not being sarcastic here - this may not be the most flattering representation of their sound, but it is a great EP for stomping around your apartment. The songs are catchy, which is way more than you get from a lot of grunge-inspired acts from after 1998. This EP has riffs and vibes. I’m looking forward to seeing them back at the church in February. I’m grabbing the mic during “Fade”.

Raw by Flatwounds is a bad EP, but I like it.