FOE: 16 Fistula Split 7"

Saturday, January 6, 2018

16 Fistula Split 7"

-(16)-/ Fistula

Split 7"

-(16)- – Complications (Killing Joke cover)

Fistula – Mongoloid (Devo cover)

Patac Records

Released: December 15, 2017

This split 7" (digital available as well) is one of the first of an ongoing Fistula split seven-inch series on PATAC Records. The other 7" in this first wave is a split with Come to Grief.

Two of the best sludge bands covering two of my favorite bands which also happen to be two of my favorite tracks by those favorite bands.

It is a win - win, win - win, win - win situation.
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Killing Joke's self titled debut LP from 1980 was a life changer. To be 14 and be able to hear that album as it was released had a huge impact on me. No one sounded like that album before. No one has sounded like that album since. One of the true classic albums. Get it if you don't have it. If you have it and haven't listened to it in awhile, put "Listen to Killing Joke" on your to do list.

"Killing Joke" must have had an impact on the members of -16- as well. I love cover songs and love sludge. This is real dirty interpretation of the song that works extremely well. A definite win - win.

"Complications" - Killing Joke

See the sun turn green

From my penthouse window

It's different now

Because you got no shelter

Alienation

By experimentation

Enjoy yourself

This is the new age

Complication!

Ransom the birth

Of a new destruction

It's different now

It's what we always wanted

Alienation

Self-destruct

At the count of ten

Complication!

Fistula's version of the Devo classic "Mongoloid" is superb.

"Mongoloid" was on the 1978 "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!" LP. Devo is my second favorite band of all time, but that's just because Slayer is my favorite. Devo saved my life in high school. Without Devo, my path in life certainly would have been a different one. So to say that a band legitimately changed your life path, certainly means I take any band covering their songs with great interest.

In Fistula's version, I love the distorted bass, love the pop of the snare and love the harsh vocals. I tend to sing every song in my head with a Fistula-like growl anyway, so this sounds familiar to me. The sludge factor is a thing of beauty, yet within the structure of the original song has a tremendous amount of unsuspected energy (sludge is usually kinda sludgy).