"Bury The Hatchet" by Massasauga
Review
If I told you that I was reviewing a single called "Bury The Hatchet" then you might make the reasonable guess that its creators were Massasauga. Given their history telling us about switchblades, ripping heads off, exorcisms, wishing wizards ill and so on, the subject matter fits their profile more closely than any others we cover.
And you'd be right: it is by Massasauga and comes out on February 28th. I have come to the conclusion that guitarist/vocalist Conrad Lummus and drummer Adam Stewart write these powerful songs & then spend long hours effectively distilling them down into ever more concentrated forms: how else to account for the potency of the output of just two players? They disdain any suggestion of augmenting the lineup & frankly it's hard to see anyone else getting a foot into these dense arrangements.
With this level of sonic intensity of course you require equivalency in the lyrical themes: hence the subjects cited above. Using the Massasauga approach to try & evoke a glade of snowdrops within a forest is likely not to work too well.
"Bury the Hatchet" smoulders with the resentments of personal betrayal : there is a thin line between this & revenge and in this case I think we can take the meaning that while the title phrase is generally taken to indicate putting weapons out of use, in this case it can also refer to burying it into the person of another. And is indeed more likely to.
That the vocal is dispassionate, amplifies the sense of remorselessness and of "revenge being a dish best eaten cold", as does the relentlessness of the instrumentation: their doom is sealed & beyond dispute. Well maybe they shouldn't have betrayed the singer eh?
Unfortunately I doubt if a suitable sound could be obtained from an actual hatchet (it's hardly a resonant object is it?) but the general clangour contains plenty of metallic alternatives conceivably forged in places where the titular implement could have been. They cite "sledgehammer" riffing which is certainly of that ilk.
With Valentines Day upon us, it's a warning to stay true or face the consequences….
