Lube Gill Is Pee

Lube Gill Is Pee

Blue Gillespie describe their namesake as, and I quote:

“the band’s collective evil alter-ego. The lyrics are his mind, the bass is his foot, the guitar is his hand and the drum his heart.”

Frankly, I can’t comprehend a more horrible description so imagine my disappointment when, after fetching my best reviewing hatchet, I put on the album & rather enjoyed most of it.

Influenced heavily by Porcupine Tree, Tool & Sleep, Blue Gillespie’s brand of progressive metal is a stripped down version content to rely on sparse but atmospheric guitar work & technical drumming.

Opener Beat Oven is a dark, down tempo track that gets repetitive early on & out stays it’s welcome by a good 2 minutes. Sugarglass has an outro that would have many a nu-metal band jizzing into their backwards baseball cap whilst Tripout‘s groovy start gives way to a haunting melodic chorus & Sabbath style guitar work. Dodgy lyrics, particularly on Wiff & Black Waltz, delivered in the first person by the band’s eponymous character do little to upset the mood of the album as a whole.

Standout track Fingered is, for the most part,  little more than catchy chorus layered over a basic drum beat but that seems to be the magical formula they’ve been searching for. Blue Gillespie shine a lot brighter on the longer, more ambient tracks where their stoner riffs are allowed to linger like a P.E. teacher in the boy’s changing rooms. Closing duo, Paradox & Time Knot work so well as one song that one wonders why they were split in the first place.

The drumming shares similarities with Danny Carey but it lacks his superhuman foot-work. Torchwood star, Gareth David-Lloyd’s vocals at their lowest are reminiscent of Anselmo in the midst of his decade-long smack binge. Whilst that sounds like an insult, I’ll remind you that he put out every one of his best albums bar Power Metal whilst fucked on heroin. The band as a whole are extremely tight but it feels like they are still trying to define their sound in a field more densely occupied than an eastern European tenement.

Whilst they may have the worst name since punctuation-loving, proper case-hating nu-metallers (hed) PE, Synesthesia is a solid debut in a genre that is easily cocked up. There is so much to like about this band, even if their name & biography make me want to headbutt a pinata full of warm vomit.

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