Ultra Gash Inferno
Fade To Nothing
I was told that Salisbury was a small City in South Wiltshire. I was also told it attracts tourists to the many historic buildings and farmer’s markets. Perhaps, when I imagined the pleasant sunny back streets and crooked-walled splendour of old buildings or when I pictured people who all know each other and smile as they pass on the narrow pavements, just maybe, I made a mistake.
Forget pleasant sunny strolls through the market or a picnic lunch in the Cathedral park, listening to Ultra Gash Inferno dispels all pre-conceptions of quaint Sunday folk sessions down the local tavern and welcomes a vision of a gritty underground venue filled with the sound of dark-grunge.
The first track, ‘Fade to Nothing’, displays a combination of muddy distorted sound and crunchy riffs. It’s as if an early Smashing Pumpkins track had been given a bit of an over-dub by The Ministry. The ideas in this track are good in their own right, with plenty of contrast between pleasant sounds in the introduction and angry noise when the song fully kicks in.
‘Poisoned Me’ opens with a simple clean guitar riff and vocal, with eerie guitars building up to the chorus, which doesn’t quite hit the noise-o-meter at the same rate as ‘Fade to Nothing’, opting instead to go for a dark emotional sound with a gradual increase in volume and anger with each chorus.
UGI squeal their way in to final track, ‘Godspell’, with screeching feedback, thudding drums and an excellent vocal that switches from a deep melody to a throat-destroying screaming with barely a breath in between.
Throughout the record, it’s clear that some of the guitar solo parts aren’t really needed, which is a bit like using too much soap; It doesn’t hurt but it won’t make you any cleaner and it might irritate your butt-crack a little if you don’t wash it all out. However, let’s not forget that, overall, this is a great mix of hardcore, goth-rock, and dark-grunge noise with some excellent guitar work and really good vocals.
The songs are good enough to not only be eminently listenable in their own right, but also to make you want to hear more from Ultra Gash Inferno. And yes, that is a hint.
Written by Smith on
