The band that the term sludge was invented to describe return with an extremely heavy and thick record full of swampy, gritty guitars and bowel shattering bass. It doesn’t get any heavier or thicker than this!
Rating: 
Weedeater – Jason… the Dragon
Southern Lord Recordings
It was beginning to look like Weedeater wasn’t going to live long enough to record a new album as the last two years was anything but dull for the band. If it wasn’t the touring it was Dixie Dave nearly blowing off his foot with a shotgun or other member’s broken bones or succumbing to illness that kept the band out of the studio for the better part of eight months. The band finally got it together and stayed out of the hospital long enough to not only play a killer show here in Chicago last fall, but finally record their fourth full length, Jason… the Dragon with Steve Albini.
Trying to describe the music of Weedeater is like trying to explain the feeling of walking through a tar pit. You can’t really comprehend what it is like without experiencing it first had. Weedeater is the thickest, dirtiest, and most sludgy band ever to roam the earth. Their sound is so thick it is like the term “sludge” was invented for the sole purpose of giving a name to the band’s sound. They feature the heaviest and thickest riffs you’ll hear in modern times that are kept in time by a drummer who hits his drums with such force its like he’s trying to actually connect his sticks with the ground below him instead of with the drum heads he’s making contact with.
The band doesn’t bother to reinvent the wheel on Jason… the Dragon, instead they took everything that worked with their previous efforts and simply expanded on it. The drums sound as loud and as crisp as ever and picking the engineer who gets one of the best drum sounds in the business was a very wise choice. the bass is so low and the guitars so distorted and crunchy that they create bowel-rumbling tones that hit you right in the shitter and start cracking bones. Weedeater are the masters of sonic sludge and what they lack in speed they double in intensity and groove. Throughout all the sludge exists some catchy hooks too that will have you bouncing along with at times and those speedier hook-laden numbers is where the band has always really shined and this album has its own fair share of them in songs like “Homecoming” and others will just drown you in a powerful swampy sonic wall of sound like, “Long Gone”. Dixie Dave’s raspy, gravel throat vocals are as sinister as ever and compliment the band’s unique sound well.
It was a long time coming but Weedeater overcame all the mishaps of the last two years and Jason… the Dragon was well worth the wait. Now let’s hope they steer clear of the shotguns and other life-threatening scenarios so we won’t have to wait as long for future records.
