16: “GUIDES FOR THE MISGUIDED”

(Let week Relapse Records released a new album by 16 [aka -(16)-], and this week we’ve got Gonzo‘s review of the record below.)

Outside of the unholy trinity of The Melvins, Eyehategod, and Crowbar, you might be hard-pressed to name another longstanding sludge band that’s left their swampy mark on the scene quite like those three have.

If that’s the case, Southern California’s 16 would like a word.

Photo by Chad Kelco

Few bands in sludge – let alone in any genre – have had the career trajectory like 16 has had. A slew of lineup changes over three decades that included three different vocalists, six bass players, and five drummers would normally be enough to put a dent in creativity at best, and lead to total disbandment at worst, but emerging with an album as strong as Guides for the Misguided is a testament to the band’s resilience. It’s also a giant fucking middle finger to any established norms or trends of any sort.

The opening stomp of “After All” gets the album off to a galloping start, with founding vocalist/guitarist Bobby Ferry spitting pure piss and vinegar beneath fiery riffs that sound like they’re soaked in battery acid. “Hat on a Bed” quickly ventures into darker and meaner territory, but it’s “Blood Atonement Blues” that first begins to take Guides for the Misguided into uncharted territory for this band.

By itself, the song unfurls like a more whiskey-soaked version of early Spirit Adrift, but it’s the bluesy motif in play here that first got my attention. This is 30+ years of teen angst, evolved. Whereas most other bands touting the white-hot ferocity of 16’s music would’ve been burnt out on their own vitriol by now, 16 just finds new ways of channeling it.

With blistering fretwork by Alex Shuster amid a Helmet-esque stomp, “Proudly Damned” keeps up said channeling. The next few tracks whip on by like a tumbleweed in a tornado, harkening back to the band’s earlier years in the best possible way. The lumbering beast within “Resurrection Day” slowly breaks free of its glacial, menacing beginnings into one of the album’s best riffs, and endnote “Kick Out the Chair” evokes the feeling of a knife slipping between your ribs for six minutes. For sludge bands, that should count as high praise.

Guides for the Misguided is the sound of what happens when your band has an endless supply of grit, riffs, and seething vitriol. It’s the culmination of 30 years of screaming into the void and refusing to quit. It’s only appropriate, then, that this album is one of 16’s finest hours. Maybe this time, the void screams back.

https://16theband.bandcamp.com/album/guides-for-the-misguided

https://www.relapse.com/pages/16-guides-for-the-misguided
https://orcd.co/16-guidesforthemisguided

https://www.facebook.com/16dropout
https://www.instagram.com/16theband