I had this one on my desk for a while-12 years, actually- during which time it mostly served as a coaster and mantel to prop up a picture of myself and bae (Hi, honey!). In all that time I didn't really feel like I needed to hear it because, in many ways, I already did. There was a big wave of crust/black metal/noise rock hybrids during the early '10s who all seemed to have the same mission: to fuck with other people's vibes- scare American Apparel shoppers and generally rip up the mood at large, millennial gatherings. Bands like Full of Hell, Trap Them, and Nails pretty much existed as sonic-psychological ordnance, deployed by hipsters against other hipsters, and Southern Lord was one of the main dealers of the era. But now that I've finally had a taste, I'm glad that I actually gave Gust's self-titled LP a listen, because it is a lot of fun, and it was quite the gay little jaunt going back and wallowing in some of the simply atrocious (non-derogatory) aura that was in circulation during the previous decade. The fast-pass, no-bull description of Gust on this, their debut LP and first proper studio recording, is withering d-beat and wind-tunnel hardcore inspired by those wrathfully whimsical metalcore minstrels Converge and Cursed. They're a Swedish band, and they live up to the pedigree that a cadre of crusts hailing from those parts implies, and pretty much check all the boxes for a group that started out doing straight crusty d-beat but eventually hazarded onto the logic that a bigger, cleaner, and more Boatright-y sound (Brad literally produced the record) could go farther and inflict more damage on adversaries and innocent bystanders alike- ruthless, loud, and, lest we forget, misanthropic. If you've had a bad day (like I do every day), this will scratch your itch, with a little more acidic atmosphere and black-metal snarl than your average band of punk crushers, even of the same milieu. Some might argue that this is just warmed-over Baptist grey water... and they have a point, but Gust's antireligious, antiauthoritarian swill is still more delicious and hits harder than many groups that came after them, and being absolutely novel isn't nearly as important with hardcore and extreme metal bands as whether or not they deliver the goods- ie, crushing beats, epic riffs, soul-rending grooves, and vocals that transmit a sense of unrestrained human anguish. In that case, it's all here. Take it in and let the bad times roll.
Technically, Southern West Coast Lord.
