Indian

From All Purity (Relapse)

Until recently, the prolonged absence of Eyehategod meant the field was wide open for a band constructed of nihilistic rage monsters. Enter Indian, a Chicago troop achieving a sort of hate-blackened grandeur on its fifth disc From All Purity. Leading with a nearly eight-minute track called “Rape,” Indian sets an agenda of vein-throbbing acrimony and despair, a docket fulfilled by the emotional and audio violence-suffused “The Impetus Bleeds,” “Disambiguation,” and the hope-pulverizing “Directional.” The quartet rumbles forward with chests crushed by a metric ton of faith-fucking sludge, while guitarists Dylan O’Toole and Will Lindsay try to disembowel themselves throat first. Indian throws a temper tantrum on From All Purity that goes beyond petulance and into an appropriately pure state of sanity-stomping anguish, purging the demons with sulfuric acid and a nail-studded baseball bat.

****

This article appears in March 14 • 2014.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US

Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.