Because I’m by no means very clued up these days, this one came in from far out field and smashed me in the grid like a sack of hammers. Oily Boys come from Sydney and are here to dish out some serious fucking attitude adjustment, mate.
Cro Memory Grin is filthy and belligerent. By turns mired in sludgy, psychedelic murk, and euphoric incediary violence. Kind of like the audio equivalent of stuffing a carcass full of live grenades, pulling the pins and dropping the whole thing down a lift shaft just to see what happens.
There’s a feeling of claustrophobic psychosis running through this LP that’s somewhat akin to repeatedly charging headfirst at a wall in order to pointlessly assess whether skull or brick will shatter first. Given the extended lockdown situations most of us have been facing to greater or lesser degrees, this seems less and less like a horrific end destination and more and more like the possibility of joy through escapism.
If this heady concoction that draws upon the most visceral elements of Fucked Up, Poison Idea, Black Flag, Pissed Jeans and Denim + Leather doesn’t leave you wimpering and shaking at the knees like a dog trying to shit out bone fragments, then I genuinely feel for you, my child. Tony of Nurgle rating: 9/10.
Available for pre-order on blue / white marbled vinyl from Static Shock Records. Expected to ship on or around 4th December, innit.
