Before we get started, can you spot Fuzzy in the album cover?? Right on!! Go check out the artist Paul Winck at https://www.instagram.com/paulwinck/
Things start right with some nice distortion and feedback, and then a heavy bass riff drops, the screaming commences, and it just gets heavier from there. Bass riff? Yea, Seum doesn't bother with guitars. It's all bass, baby. Listen to the pre-release single "Silence et Crasse" on Bandcamp:
BTW, "SEUM" means Venom in Arabic and is French slang for disappointment and frustration. Matches their music perfectly!
Fuzzy is always saying how much he digs foreign language songs. So many great stoner bands sing in Spanish, and The Swamp's GREEN HOG sings in Russian while DEATHGANG sings in Indonesian (!!), and Seum sings "Silence et Crasse" in French. Dang, I didn't realize French could sound so dirty! Which is to say, I love it! Isn't French supposed to be the language of love? Not when Seum has their way with it.
Up next is the eponymous track "Seum" which carries forward the bass-heavy riffs, sludge vocals, albeit this time it's back to English. Which sounds just as good as the French, so no worries there.
#3 is "Super Tanker" which slows things down, but keeps it just as heavy. This one is a real slow burner that picks up the pace as it goes on. Great stuff.
"Diplodokush" gets us past the halfway mark and features the dirtiest vocals on the album. This song is a "sludge ballad" with it's focus on the vocals and drawn-out riffs. By now, either you are in a mind meld with Seum, or else you miss the guitars and this ain't the band for you. For me, Seum has found a killer sound with their bass-only formula. Check out the video for Diplodokush on YouTube:
It was while listening to "St. Catherine" that I realized something about Seum that I like so much. I've always had a thing for 2-piece bands (check out my comp "Sticks & Strings vol. 1") and in a way, Seum is a 2-piece band, in the sense that the music is the 2-piece, and then they add on the vocals. I love the raw energy of a 2-piece and this band takes advantage of that.
"Raining Bricks" ends things with some downright funky groovy riffage, and I gotta say, this album ended waaaaaaaay too quickly. I'm definitely going to be hitting the REPLAY button a lot on this one.
Let's wrap it up: Fuzzy digs this band! Ultra heavy, quick riffage, and totally nasty. Right on!
Fuzzy's favorite track: I gotta go with Super Tanker, although the French in Silence et Crasse is pretty damn great too. No weak tracks on here.
Seum band is from Montreal with members:
- Piotr - bass
- Gaspard - vocals
- Fred - drums
