The Rock Blogger

Harvey Milk . Life…The Best Game in Town . 2008. Hydra Head Records. 3.5 stars .

I had never heard of Georgia’s cult favorite Harvey Milk until last week when I randomly decided to catch their show in NYC. After having read a quick blurb about them in the paper comparing them to sludge/doom metal contemporaries Earth and Isis, I figured I would see what these surly dudes had to offer. Harvey Milk’s haggard and tired members took to the stage well after midnight, bemoaning technical problems, long stretches of highway, and whiskey, before taking big swigs and ripping into their set. This is sweaty, dirty, angry drinking music at its best. Their brutally loud and heavy performance, complete with drawn out riffs, lumbering percussion and bellowing anguish, has been captured beautifully on their latest disc "Life…The Best Game in Town" which I quickly picked up with ears ringing.

Harvey Milk’s influences are easy to spot, with slow crunchy numbers echoing the thunderous drones of The Melvins, the stoned bliss of Kyuss and the scrappy rawness of DC hardcore. Life is far from derivative however, as the band’s keen sense of pacing and dynamic shifts keeps things varied and interesting. You have the gentle to mental expanses of "Death Goes to the Winner" which contrasts a delicate and somber soft-sung intro with a surge of dense molasses. "After All I’ve Done For You…" is a rapid fire assault of tenuous, menacing soling. "Motown" sees the band practicing tight songwriting, rocking out within a clear and unified classic rock framework.

Life…The Best Game in Town succinctly summarizes the essence of Harvey Milk’s sound - thick as a brick and just as heavy and dangerous. Yet for all its violent outbursts there lies a tragic and longing heart within, hopelessly sentimental in its whiskey-soaked stumbles. I personally wanted to see more of the fragility that stealthily peaks its head out amid the Southern-fried mayhem, but oh well, sludge bands are rarely subtle in their approach anyways, so even the slightest nuance is quite remarkable. So yeah, if you like doom, sludge, hardcore punk and all that, check out Harvey Milk, they seem to encompass all that gritty territory quite well.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 8:30 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.