Zozobra: Savage Masters

Zozobra is the brainchild of Cave In’s Caleb Scofield. With such a weighty and respectable item on his resume, it would be almost inconceivable that he could’ve taken part in writing such a boring and uninventive record such as Savage Masters. Maybe two decades ago, this formulaic approach of processing sludgy/noise-metal through a regulatory hardcore-punk tempo was (sort of) fresh; but in the current day, record stores have milk-crates full of vinyl stacked up to the ceiling panels in bands that sound this way. Seemingly every riff, tempo change and breakdown (gag) can be predicted four measures prior. A pre-packaged sound like this is not typical of a band that has yet to be sodomized by a major label.

Mostly, it’ll be the Hot Topics crowd who may possibly get a jump-start to their puberty over this record, but seasoned connoisseurs that have had their fill of bands doing some sort of Converge variation will find it tedious work to sit through this near half-hour snore-fest. The record’s brevity is to be appreciated, keeping the track-list short and simple, much like the songs therein. Another three minutes of this mediocrity would drive anyone to jump through a window…