Cable - Northern Failures

Label: Hydra Head
Year: 2001

The album that Cable released prior to this one, 'Gutter Queen' is a minor classic in the destructo-rock pantheon (and let's not forget the album that preceded THAT one, 'Variable Speed Drive', a noisy punch in the Adam's Apple in it's own right). So, this follow up had some pretty big shoes to fill, and by getting Steve Austin to record the thing (and scream along here and there), well, that's a pretty good start. And then to double down on the "been drinking since 1:00pm on account of getting pink slipped today at work, but fuck it, that job blew anyway...want a shot?"staggering swagger, I like that approach too.
The riffs get a little more southern fried, but the animosity is still on overkill. This band for real knows how to drive home a point, and usually that point is some derivation of "fuck off", or 'life is hard'. Speaks to me.
Somehow this record seems even more warped than what they had been doing, and definitely separated them from the Botch's and Deadguy's of the world, although you can still hear some of their history as a hardcore band, but now with added thick 16 heft. Cable took a nose dive into a self loathing stew of damaged, cascading, sludgy bile. The resulting listen, though, comes across as  exhilarating, not oppressive. It has enough swing that the groove keeps you on the up and up. Even when you're up and up above rotting prospects and a diseased future. But you're up there...for now.

*Originally posted 06.16.17, reposted 03.29.22

DL