BLOOD FARMERS (Permanent Brain Damage) CD
Back in the mid-90's, the BLOOD FARMERS were the most mysterious heavy Doom band on Hellhound Records. They were great fans of exploitation movies, especially all that blood-drenched and psychotic stuff. Their debut album, released in 1995, included a cover-artwork which had been taken from "Deranged", one of the best movies about the character and madness of Ed Gein, while the back cover shows a tasteful and eerie band photo. Formed in 1989, strongly influenced from Black Sabbath, they had also added other early 70's influences to their heavy sound and the "thanks-list" in the self-titled Hellhound debut, is a who-is-who of all great heavy 70's underground bands like Sir Lord Baltimore, Bang, T2, Tear Gas and so on. Surely, they also had listen to a lot of early-80's British Metal and so they combined both styles in a striking heavy pounding way.
Exzessive and orgiastic guitarwork has also been a trademark of the BLOOD FARMERS as well as Eli Brown's bluesy and rough vocals. In 1996 the band broke-up, when guitarist Dave Depraved left to pursue a writing career, while vocalist Eli Brown later formed the heavy-psych group M-Squad. It seems, as if the BLOOD FARMERS would be overlooked by time and history. But Leaf Hound label boss Toreno Kobayashi, who maybe felt the same, wanted to release more stuff and decided to exhume the "Permanent Brain Damage" demo tape, which has been recorded by the BLOOD FARMERS back in 1991. The result is the re-mixed and re-mastered "Permanent Brain Damage" CD, which includes the band's first demo along with a live bonus track from their last show in 1996. After all the years the music had lost nothing of its power and atmospheric charm, and the BLOOD FARMERS are still a good example for a Doom band, which is deeply rooted in the early 70's. Mostly, the here included six cuts are about 13+ minutes and you should have a fondness for five minutes long guitarsolos and other relicts out of the 70's.
If you own the Hellhound album, it still makes sense to get a copy of this CD, because the production is better as on the debut. For my taste, the '95 release suffers on a dull mix, but the included song material was strong. "Permanent Brain Damage" sounds fresher and energetic as the here included early version of "Bullet In The Head". The unknown cuts are as good as expected, due to the band's talent in writing good authentic songs instead of just adding one heavy riff to the next. The BLOOD FARMERS are still one of the more original Doom bands and I heard rumours about a reunion. Well, anyway no matter what will happen, but "Permanant Brain Damage" is an excellent album and should be interesting enough for all you Doomhounds!
(KK)