BIGHEAD - Backwoods Medical Anomalies (Review)

Written by: The Administrator

As a someone who enjoys new music, there are fewer joys greater than "discovering" a band that has 0 monthly listeners on Spotify. And yes, that feeling isn't diminished even when the act of "discovery" actually refers to clicking a link that a band has emailed directly to me. In any case, we slumbering scribes are happy to get in on the ground floor--albeit a whole year after said email was received--and I hope that this review leads to a double-digit listener count for today's band in question.

The band? Bighead, a solo act reveling in the kind of overt noisy goregrind grotesquery that makes me wish, for the reader's sake, that I could hide this review behind a tasteful blur. If you are preemptively imaging track titles and samples detailing medical procedures gone terribly wrong, that's exactly what Backwoods Medical Anomalies has in store. And for that reason, I highly recommend NOT clicking "read more" if gore and the assorted words and sounds that come with it don't sit well with your stomach. Otherwise, see you on the other side! 

---

Okay. Still here? This 9 minute project contains 8 tracks, which should tell you a whole lot about the minimalistic approach to song structure. These tracks drop an idea and leave before you have adequate time to formulate a response. There's not much time to formulate an opinion beyond that initial gross-out reaction. Which is arguably the point.

Things kick off with the charmingly entitled "Intercourse With Brain Matter Exposed By a 3" Hole Saw," which is the longest track here at 1:59 and features a whole lot of expository soundbites. The drill is particularly unnerving--without the exposition provided by the title it is hard enough to listen to, but with that extra info cementing the scene, it's pretty nauseating. The following "Engaged in Coitus With a Colostomy Stoma" features some a plodding start that is prompting pulverized by impossibly rapid percussion alongside animalistic howls and some skittery riffage. The whole thing sounds like a woodpecker destroying the inside of your cranium while you're actively being mauled by a grizzly--a vibe that carries over into "Fecal Occult Blood Test For Parasitic Worm Infestation." This assumes that you're listening on Spotify, as the track order appears to differ over on Bandcamp for reasons unknown. In any case, this latter track may be my favorite on the project, as the vocals manage to feel unexpected forlorn in the midst of chaos. I appreciate how distant and muffled everything becomes over the track's short runtime.
​

​Throbbing electronic noise briefly takes the lead, with "Disemboweled by Ancient Backwoods Evil" trading the howled vocals for some menacing synth. Closing things out, the back half, consistently of a handful of short(er) tracks, leans into a pounding intensity that obfuscates thoughts beyond a general feeling of unease. Here in particular, Bighead succeeds quite well--a deliberate alienation of the listener is accomplished pretty damn effectively.

Obviously you're not listening to Backwoods Medical Anomalies for the riffs or the songwriting. You're listening because you want to feel something distasteful, you want to revel in gross discomfort. If that's something you're interested in, Bighead provides an experience worth experiencing.

Bighead - Backwoods Medical Anomalies was released Nov. 11th, 2023. Find it here!

---

Bighead can be found:
Bandcamp