Mp3 of the Week: Motherboar

Let us now praise ugly music -- the type of heavy metal that summons the image of screaming, mud-clotted, matted-haired troglodytes pillaging Cro-Mag villages, outfitted in nothing but loincloths and warpaint and Marshall stacks. From Allston, filthy and flailing, come MOTHERBOAR, who hark back to the glory days of Boston sludge, when Scissorfight, Slughog, and Roadsaw brought stone-age thrash back from the grave. The Boar's new album Raise the Death Toll trods heavily through the same muck but adds plenty of new touches — feedback tones that DNA crime labs could match to the Misfits, Slayer-ish aharmonic guitar duels, Soungarden-ish tempo shifts. If your band played Bunratty's, this is who just picked up your goddamn torch.

In the fishwrap we promised you a song called "Ode To Swine," which is a good one, but the other day Motherboar changed their minds and offered us the title track instead. The difference? A couple dozen BPM, throttling speed over thundering grind, better guitar solos, and an unbeatable first line: "Let's rock n roll!" Inasmuch as Raise the Death Toll is sort of a Kill Em All for people who still listen to Entombed,  Clutch, and Scissorfight, this is sort of their "Motorbreath." OK, we're saying that partly because they reference themselves in the song, and thrash songs where bands shout themselves out make us all weepy and nostalgic for drinking ourselves puking blind on 120-proof Southeern Comfort in 1986. But also, and most importantly, this song kicks planets of ass. Period.

After downloading the song below, we suspect you will not fail to stumble down to the Linwood on Saturday, December 9, for the CD-release party with Cocked N Loaded, Bloodhorse, and Battle for Wyoming.

DOWNLOAD: Motherboar, "Raise the Death Toll" (mp3)