Reviews list for Kowloon Walled City - Gambling on the Richter Scale (2009)

Gambling on the Richter Scale is pretty damn heavy and has a bottom end that, if played too loudly, may leave you homeless if your house isn't up to code. What it isn't though, is an indistinguishable morass of distortion-laden fuzz. Sure, it utilises distortion to great effect, but the recording is so clear that all the ingredients are sharply defined. The rhythm section of bassist Ian Miller and drummer Jeff Fagundes particularly benefit from this aspect of the production. The bass shines through and even dominates proceedings at times, providing a super-solid foundation for the guitar riffs to be built on. The drumwork is brilliant, being perfectly positioned in the mix and with plenty of interesting fills, Fagundes especially shining on Bone Loss where the more complex drumming patterns contrast really effectively with the quite basic riffing. The guitar work is essentially quite straitforward, but the riffs are as thick as you would hope for and being bolstered by the bass, they are ridiculously heavy. There isn't a huge amount of lead work, but what there is is handled well and layered over the heaviness of the riffing it hits like razorblades set in concrete.

Guitarist Scott Evans also handles vocal duties and has a decent hardcore punk bawl that sounds more derived from the NYHC scene than San Francisco. Lyrically this is as bleak and unflinching as anything by Eyehategod or other sludge legends - Diabetic Feet for example speaks of living with amputation due to ignorance of the effects of treatable disease and several other tracks deal with the erosion of self due and daily grind caused by poverty and endless back-breaking and soul-destroying labour. There is no hope or redemption to be found anywhere within Kowloon Walled City's lyrics as they are desperately try to force you to blink or look away.

In summation, this is actually a bit of a hidden gem of the sludge world and deserves more recognition than it has so far received.