Compiling the contents of two CD-R releases — A Serpent’s Lust on Foxy Digitalis and Blacc Stork on Students of Decay — Blacc Lust featuring Heavy Winged jams on three extensive tracks from sessions in 2005. Positioned somewhere between noise extremity in the 21st century and droning howl from any number of psych/overdrive forebears, it’s a good approximation of their often astonishing live performances, though those remain the best ways to encounter the band. Opening “Crimson” has little overtly to do with Robert Fripp, say, but as a tribute to early Lightning Bolt’s insane hyperdrive it’s a treat and a half, speaker noise bleeding through from any number of amps as everything rips along. Halfway through a slight pause allows the band to downshift into more of a steady pulsing roar, Jed Bindeman’s drums sounding like jackbooted giants stomping on a ceiling. “In Bloum,” similar to “Crimson,” doesn’t per se suggest a more well-known rock reference, but in exchange for grunge tributes is a slow building burn of a song, steadily building up for its first quarter-length in a ritualistic combination of droning and pounding before Bindeman’s drums cut out in favor of Ryan Hebert and Brady Sansone’s drones. As the song continues into white-sheet noise with Bindeman adding occasional fills, it finds a balance between free-form float and careful timing that’s suddenly revealed in a majestic drum/riff combination that could almost be the Melvins if they were ever self-consciously epic. “Blacc Stork,” in comparison, is more of a straight-ahead rocker, but when Sansone’s bass snaps into a huge, downward-slashing throb halfway through, it’s almost like a great DJ dropping a break in the mix at just the right moment. – Ned Raggett
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