Dysentery is an infection of the intestines resulting in severe diarrhea with the presence of blood and mucus in the feces. Also referred to as the 'Bloody Flux', it is estimated that this horrific gastrointestinal disorder killed more soldiers and sailors than did combat in the 19th Century. In fact, dysentery decimated Napoleon's Grande Armée in Russia, and more than 80,000 Union soldiers succumbed to it during the American Civil War. Today, most of us will, fortunately, never be faced with this gruesome parasitic infestation, unless, of course, infection wiggles its way into your meat via a shiny new pair of Beats by Dre™ headphones. Apart from the overall visual ethos that slam takes from human suffering and diseases such as dysentery, so too is it influenced by the sounds – TR-808 bass drops, gravity blasts, and rectal regurgitating vocals are literal soundtracks from a truck-stop toilet. With that in mind, we bring you two of slam metal's most influential, and relevant, bands – particularly as it relates to this one-song, one-love installment of Dank Slams. Said song is "Escape Into Orbital Infinity", first released in 2002 by slam godfathers Dripping, and most recently covered by Dysentery on their forthcoming split with Shroud. Can you smell it?
DRIPPING – DISINTEGRATION OF THOUGHT PATTERNS DURING A SYNTHETIC MIND TRAVELING BLISS
Formed in 2000, these East Coast tough guys are your dad's era of slam. Self-identifying as "New Jersey drug metal", Dripping were, no doubt, laying down the foundations for slam metal as we know it today. On their first, and only, full-length, 02's mind-fucking Disintegration Of Thought Patterns During A Synthetic Mind Traveling Bliss, Dripping took the breakdowns of their forebears in Suffocation and Pyrexia and twisted the absolute fuck out of it. The pit riffs are plentiful and catchy, but not particularly crushing – perhaps a little too staccato in presentation and execution. That being said, let's keep in mind that these guys were concocting this stuff pre-deathcore and Analepsy-styled slams… formulaic had yet to be incorporated into the slam vocabulary. What it does share with today's slam is its penchant for bog-like cricket/frog vocalizations and the use of samples. The best example of this on the album can be found lurking within the song "Escape Into Orbital Infinity", the focus of today's feature…
DYSENTERY – BLISSFUL APATHY (SPLIT)
Hitting with the same kinda slam as Germany's Defeated Sanity and Nevada's Guttural Secrete, Massachusetts' Dysentery are for the more discerning of brutal death/slam connoisseurs. Their debut album, 08's From Past Suffering Comes New Flesh, is a romp into progressive/tech slam territory. A couple of years on would see the release of their stellar sophomore effort, Internal Devastation. This is where the guys found their groove, and not the trope-ridden groove found in the slams of a band like, say, Cephalotripsy, where the slow, gurgling chugs are certainly heavy, but lack that foot-tappin gore-groove that you'll find yourself whistlin on the toilet a week later. Still slammin away all these years later, the guys in Dysentery have recently unveiled their cover of Drippings "Escape Into Orbital Infinity". Let this serve as a much needed celebration to a band that started it all, and a definitive look at how far we have come…
