Review of "Lovelessness" by Bison B.C.

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1. An Old Friend

2. Anxiety Puke / Lovelessness

3. Last and First Things

4. Blood Music

5. Clozapine Dream

6. Finally Asleep

In the great Canadian spirit of loss and heart ache, the downer foursome known as BISON b.c. have managed to scourge their rotting brains desperately puking out new psalms of suffering. Akin to a lunatic writing their opus on the bedroom wall with their own shit comes this strange noise from the west coast melting pot of shit and failure; in a country based on terrifying distance and lonesome, stoic suffering. Lovelessness does not portray the death of love or the lack of the same. Rather it attempts to map out the pathetic and desperate pursuit of love, which in itself becomes violent like a cancer, an assault on anything that is good in the world. A heartfelt repulsion towards anything that could bring pleasure, because with happiness we suffer truly - the wanting of more. Gluttons! Pigs to the trough! Lead us to treachery! Lead us to solitude!

BISON b.c. worked with acclaimed producer Sanford Parker at Soma and Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago to record Lovelessness. Parker is best known for his work with bands such as Yob, Pelican, Rwake, Yakuza, Nachtmystium, Zoroaster, Unearthly Trance, and more. Needless to say, Parker is more than qualified to put-to-tape the raw, furious energy that is BISON b.c.

Starting of the first track, “An Old Friend,” is a very chilled out riff. This track has very groovy riffs with nice lead breaks and a great solo as well. The vocals are great, with coherent screams, making it easier to understand but still giving you your metal style. Next is the long track at nine minutes, “Anxiety Puke / Lovelessness.” I get a stoner metal meets depressive progressive doom feel from this track. It has a lot of mood changing riffs which clash very perfectly and the guitars have a mix between relaxing leads to heavier parts. “Last and First Things,” is the next track and continues the lengthy trend. The ambient intro with nice soft tribal drum patterns and great accompanying lead following was very amazing. When the track gets heavier the guitars are great with catchy rhythms and nice lead diddles. The harmonized bits and solo near the end are noteworthy and great as well.

A very weird strumming starts off “Blood Music,” followed by a very gloomy piece with the way the guitar and drums flowed. Bison B.C. really knows how to play from both side of the emotion spectrum with its chilling parts and relaxing catchy leads. Next is shortest track on the album, “Clozapine Dream.” I really like the guitars, which feel very moshable and there is definitely some punk influences drawn to create this track. “Finally Asleep” ends the album with very great mellow guitars. It is really catchy and the faster thrash style part was great. The solo accompanying it was nice as well and this is a great track to end the album.

This album is really well done the way the mix off gloomy, depressive riffs and the more upbeat catchy riffs flow together. I very much so enjoyed this album and my favourite two tracks are “Anxiety Puke / Lovelessness” and “Last and First Things.” You should definitely pick this up if you like stoner, progressive, and doom metal as it draws from those subgenres.