New Blood: Penguins with Knives
by Robert Dean
New Orleans is known for music. Some of it is colorful, shiny, and makes
you want to dance down the block. The brass swings and the grooves drop like
the bodies that litter the daily news. There’s hip-hop in New Orleans that
leans on cultural nuance and themes that extoll the virtues of inner city life.
In New Orleans, music is the lifeblood of all things, all events, all moments
have a beat. But, there’s one style of music that New Orleans is especially
adept at churning out and when it’s done right, it aches personality and
signature. That music is sludge.
There’s something about that humidity, the water, the scent of the air
that affects band’s mentality in how they attack a song, how they pull on their
guitars and get to work. Summers in New Orleans are miserable. The nights are
sticky and refuse to let up. Because of that unrelenting heat, it scrambles the
mental eggs, it morphs perceptions and equates to fluctuating views on the
world at large. And because of all these factors, it goes right back into the
blueprints of sludge. The groove is soulful. The attack isn’t for the jugular
like most metal. It's more for hoisting beers and bobbing your head because
it’s too hot to mosh.
The grand New Orleans tradition of heavy metal has lent us such
luminaries as Phil Anselmo who’s fronted a bazillion bands, but most notably Pantera
and DOWN. There’s Eyehategod, Soilent Green, Goatwhore
(Admittedly not sludge), Thou, Mountain of Wizard, Exhorder, Crowbar,
Corrosion of Conformity (Pepper is from New Orleans, and Pepper era COC is
the best COC), and Acid Bath.
The musical heartbeat goes deep, and it goes funky. Some of the bands
maybe are or aren’t so deep on the spectrum of what one defines “sludge” but to
drive a finer point, all of these bands aren’t just good, they’re titans of
their respective necks of the woods.
But, as the New Orleans scene continues, there needs to be new blood.
And finally, after a long withdrawal of bands to count among those actualizing
what the Crescent City sounds like, we’ve arrived at Penguins with Knives.
Admittedly, it took me a while to get past the name. But, I’ve been known to
enjoy the first two Korn albums, as well as don’t mind some Cracker
or Toad the Wet Sprocket.
On their debut e.p. Penguins with Knives manage to lay a whole
lot of history out in just a collection of songs. Think the riffage of DOWN,
and maybe even some vintage DeLeo brothers Stone Temple Pilots mixed
with vocal delivery of a more frantic, paranoid Acid Bath. On each of
the four songs, they offer different looks into the band, allowing for a
signifier of what’s to come. The battery is tight and the guitar work doesn’t
feel bargained for, or that they’re trying to cram too much into a small space.
A lot of times on the e.p. the less is more approach works rather than doing
the impossible to come off cheesy in the admitted Sabbath worship that’s at the
heart of the style.
Being their first batch of songs, the completeness of the concept is
considerably there. That’s exciting. In New Orleans, bad music and bad food
never last. If something doesn’t stand on its own, folks move on. There’s just
too much delicious competition. This debut e.p. stands on individual merit
against any and all comers in New Orleans, Southeastern Louisana, and the Gulf
Coast.
Get Penguins with Knives on your radar. The band will be fun to
follow as they progress. There’s little snapshots into faster more punk-y
inspired stuff, and then on a dime, the vibe flips to a Blues vibe. The
collective identity of being chameleons of the groove is intoxicating and as we
see the band grow and develop, only time will tell where they go next.
