Big Business

Big Business is a pretty polarizing band. From what I gather, people either really love it or just really hate it. It is quite understandable, as the sludgy noise genre is not exactly the most toe-tapping music around. But for the two-headed beast of the now part-time Big Business / part-time Melvins members duo, their second album Here Come the Waterworks takes everything good about the debut and makes it better.

The sound is still the same. Bassist Jared Warren warps his bass through endless pedals and plays it more in the style of a guitar. Drummer Coady Willis still relentlessly pounds away on the drums with an unbridled energy. Warren still bellows semi-intelligible lyrics, but like before, it just serves as another layer to the sludgy noise battering your eardrums. Listening to their latest album off Hydra Head Records is like being handcuffed to a steamroller driven by the two. You can do all you want to stop the imminent devastation ahead, but whether you want it to or not, Big Business will keep on churning slowly ahead and it really just becomes the question of if you have the stones to keep up.

The writing is much tighter this time around and shows a bit more diversity in the sound. “Hands Up” begins with Warren bellowing “stampede!” as a precursor of what is to come. The drums are impressive, inventive, and amazing. The bass is murky, distorted, and awesome. Big Business is much more focused on crushing you under the weight of its spectacular heaviness this time around, proving that for the most impressive noise, you don’t have to growl, scream, screech, or anything. Other songs like the nine-minute “I’ll Give You Something to Cry About” almost taking a prog-noise approach and the band is greatly helped out by the guitar occasionally enlisted throughout the album. It’s a slow pace, but between Warren and Willis, they make it exciting and enjoyable.

Here Come the Waterworks could theoretically win over new fans. The sound is much catchier this time around, but most likely, fans of the sludgy noise variety are already playing this album. But for those that aren’t, give it a shot because it is impressive. The drumming is up there with some of the best in the business and for just two guys and two instruments, when the dam breaks, it’s an impressive wall of sound to witness.