Originally hailing from the frosted and damned literal middle-of-nowhere Sørreisa in Norway, a random hyper sludge duo named after a fat and opulent Star Wars villain couldn’t possible be any good, eh? Actually I dug this quite a bit, though I didn’t discover it until long after release. The first thing you might think of when listening to Jabba’s energetic debut release is the raw, cock-pumped early proto-sludge of Melvins; but within it’s short 22 minutes ‘Vice’ contains nods to far more relevant influences.

The rapid fire distorted bass rumblings resemble noisecore veterans Lightning Bolt at their least abrasive, and the slower tracks like “Rat” and “Mathlete” hint at the duo’s potentially calmer future resembling the restfully sludge metal aggression of Floor. Who knows what they’re singing about, I don’t have a lyric sheet; but if the one word song titles like “Smoke”, “Drink” and “Drugs” give any serious indication they reflect the rural, isolated restlessness conveyed through brisk hardcore-like bass-driven songs.

It’s the kind of shit that makes your ass shake whether you’re up, down or sideways out of your mind and I enjoyed leaving it on repeat. I can only imagine what a mutant blender of sludged-out noisecore this band’ll turn into over time. Awesome to get a random, pube-shredding kick in the balls like this once in a while.

Throbbin’ goodies. 3.0/5.0