{"id":903,"date":"2005-08-18T17:06:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-18T17:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/?p=903"},"modified":"2024-04-03T17:07:10","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T17:07:10","slug":"part-mammal-part-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/?p=903","title":{"rendered":"Part mammal, part machine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Abominable Iron Sloth specializes in slow-paced mayhem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"No
No calculated bed-head hairstyles for these lads.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

9 p.m. Friday, August 19; with Supermodel Suicide and Bright Light Fever; $7. Blue Lamp, 1400 Alhambra Boulevard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more than a few reasons <\/strong>not to like today\u2019s metal scene. Just ask Cayle Hunter, founding member of Sacramento (via Chico) band Abominable Iron Sloth. \u201cEvery band insists on looking half-ass and glammed-out, wearing their girls\u2019 jeans and youth-large T-shirts, wearing makeup with their absolutely ridiculous scene haircuts that they will never admit they had two years from now,\u201d said the disgusted guitarist. \u201cIt seems like music is dead last on a lot of these bands\u2019 minds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon further inspection, Hunter\u2019s analysis appears to be dead on. While most bands around these parts barely dare to tune below D (a nauseating frequency sure to cause irrational fits, abnormal rashes and dizzying spells of sickness) to push boundaries, Abominable Iron Sloth insists on smashing the mold entirely. The band\u2019s sound, a cross between early doom-metal fare and Bloodlet colliding with Today Is The Day, is anything but pretty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abominable Iron Sloth evokes behavior that could come only from such a hideous beast. While the band gets more attention than most due to its ridiculous moniker, there\u2019s a greater story lurking in the shadows. \u201cThe band is basically a soundtrack for this character the Abominable Iron Sloth\u2019s life,\u201d Hunter explained. \u201cThe music sounds exactly like a giant sloth that goes around killing everything in its sight because that\u2019s what it was born to do and can\u2019t do anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the band\u2019s current formation (Hunter, Jeff Irwin and Justin Godfrey on guitar; Mitch Wheeler on drums; and Mike Martin on bass) has been playing together for about six months, Abominable Iron Sloth is actually about two years old. \u201cJustin and I were in a band called Oddman together,\u201d Hunter said, recalling the band\u2019s origins. \u201cAfter that band broke up, Justin had been writing these super-heavy riffs, and I thought they needed to be recorded. We put some songs together and recorded them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the two musicians found themselves in demand in Chico, the Bay Area and the Sacramento Valley region\u2014much to Hunter\u2019s surprise. \u201c[The recordings] turned out so well, however, that people wanted us to start playing shows, which we wanted to do, but we didn\u2019t have any other members,\u201d Hunter explained. \u201cWe said, \u2018Fuck it. We\u2019ll play as a two-piece.\u2019 Justin played guitar and sang, while I played drums. We must have played 50 or 60 shows together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although two-piece bands work for the obvious reasons\u2014fewer people to pay, fewer people to recruit for regular practice sessions and fewer squabbles\u2014Hunter and Godfrey decided to add members of the (sadly) defunct Will Haven, who already were playing with Hunter in a project dubbed Ghostride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the first practice, with the three guitars and the tones, it sounded immense,\u201d Hunter recalled. \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing the full band ever since and just finished re-recording the old songs and recording five new ones. It\u2019s being mixed now, and we will probably put it out on our own Distruktor Records label, unless somebody else steps up between now and then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, an overseas tour is harder to finance alone. \u201cSince we are totally DIY, traveling abroad seems a little unrealistic,\u201d Hunter admitted. \u201cGhostride was lucky enough to be able to go to the U.K. for a while this year, but we had a label over there that was helping us. Unless another band or another label was willing to finance us, I don\u2019t see it happening in the immediate future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abominable Iron Sloth might currently be without outside label support, but the boys are anything but sedentary in their touring schedule. \u201cAs far as our upcoming U.S. dates, they are all shows that Justin got just by networking with other people that happen to like the band and were willing to put in some work to get us to their town. It\u2019s very nice, very flattering and very low-budget. But, I guarantee it will be a great time,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit www.myspace.com\/theironsloth<\/a> for a list of upcoming shows or catch the Sloth this Friday at the Blue Lamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(SN&R)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abominable Iron Sloth specializes in slow-paced mayhem 9 p.m. Friday, August 19; with Supermodel Suicide and Bright Light Fever; $7. Blue Lamp, 1400 Alhambra Boulevard. There are more than a few reasons not to like today\u2019s metal scene. Just ask Cayle Hunter, founding member of Sacramento (via Chico) band Abominable Iron Sloth. \u201cEvery band insists on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":904,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acloserlookmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}