I don't get the chance to review Croatian bands very often. And I definitely don't get many chances to review Croatian noise rock bands (try never). This is why the band COG caught my eye.
The first thing I noticed with this album was the packaging: sturdy, coarse paper in contrast to the thin, glossy paper that is the norm for CD's these days (or has it always been that way?), and a sort of Cold War/Space Age motif going on in the artwork that, while sounding cliché, is really striking for some reason. So it was with great curiosity that I listened to Course Over Ground for the first time.
COG does have all the usual trappings of modern noise rock: dissonant and somewhat abstract guitars, gnarly bass, ultra-heavy drumming, and part-shouted, part-mumbled vocals. But COG manages to carve its own niche in that particular sound.
The band has some particularly abrasive guitar tones that remind me of Shellac (the playing does as well, only less repetitive), upfront bass, clever songwriting, and perplexing lyrics like these, which are from the song "101":
Bowed my spine and put my head between thighs / This is the 31st sign of my tongue in the coroner's eyes / And the country smiles in the coroner's eyes / I think, I think I'll fake remorse / They put on my face a veil of stars.
The album offers a mix of straight-ahead, atonal, intentionally damaged rock songs like the opener, "Boombar," which demands attention with a face-melting guitar riff and a loud, driving bass line, and more laidback, moody numbers like "101" and "Queen Ann's Revenge." Just as a good noise rock album should be, Course Over Ground is catchy in a weird, off-kilter way that will warrant many repeat listens.
With Course Over Ground, COG proves it can hang with the noise rock elite. The genre is not exactly ripe with fresh ideas and tends to repeat itself by nature, but COG, along with Young Widows and Volt show there are enjoyable and relevant albums to still be found in the noise rock realm.
