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Begotten, 2018 Demo EP: The Trichome’s Growth

begotten 2018 demo ep

New York riff-stompers Begotten began playing shows again a couple years ago, having been long defunct following the release of their lone, self-titled album in 2001. That record was remastered in 2018 with the addition of two previously unreleased tracks, “Nomad” and “Apache” (premiered here), and has held an auspicious place in heavy rock trivia for being the final release on Man’s Ruin Records before the storied label went under. The band followed suit soon enough after, spending the intervening years, as they tell it, with guitarist/vocalist Matt Anselmo being diagnosed with throat cancer, bassist/vocalist Amanda Topaz losing much of her ability to hear, and drummer Rob Sefcik joining anti-genre purveyors Kings Destroy. As to the impetus for a reunion, I couldn’t possibly say, but it’s resulted in the first new material from the band since their debut in the form of 2018 Demo EP, which brings forth six songs of nodder riffs and loose-feeling-but-nonetheless-heavy groove. The recording, helmed by Kol Marshall and Joe Kelly at Suburban Elvis Studios (also Eternal Black), was done over the course of two days, and sounds and feels live with an intent toward rawness and grit.

A demo, in other words. And it was unquestionably released in 2018, so that settles that. What I’d argue with as regards the title, however, is the “EP” portion of it. 2018 Demo EP, which slogs through a four-minute introduction with “Surrender to the Doom” before loosing the roller “WhiteOut” — which I’m just gonna guess isn’t about fixing typographical errors; think “Snowblind” in concept and sound — is 38 minutes long. That’s a full-length. While I’m sure Begotten have more material hanging around, their dirt-caked sludge has enough time in these songs to demonstrate its variety of composition and overarching flow, the dynamic in swapping vocals between Anselmo and Topaz, and the shifts between harsher, Bongzilla-style crust screaming, as on “WhiteOut” and the cleaner melodies of “Cold Earth,” “Levitator ADX” and “Apache,” which follow and each hover on either side of eight minutes long, thereby comprising the bulk of the offering, growing more immersive and more spacious as they play one into the next.

That in itself speaks to 2018 Demo EP as an album, and while I don’t want to get hung up haggling over the delineation — as, yes, I know, I do — the fact is that EPs and LPs are regarded on different levels. This is a demo, clearly marked, so that’s its own consideration as well, but especially as “WhiteOut” unfolds into “Cold Earth,” and especially with the instrumental intro “Surrender to the Doom” and its companion outro “Into the Trichome” at the end, 2018 Demo EP moves like an album. It has two sides — somewhat uneven in length with a split after “Cold Earth,” but still — and it seems to reach further as it plays through until the final deconstruction and ringout at its conclusion. Particularly with a production that’s so willfully raw and a live-seeming recording method, there’s nothing missing here to stop it from being a full-length demo. That said, the fact that Begotten call it a demo speaks to a desire on their part to refine what’s here or otherwise progress from it.

begotten

Not that it’s fair to compare something from 17 years earlier, but indeed, the self-titled had a cleaner sound, if like-minded in terms of the space captured. It’s hard to know their future intent, but if 2018 Demo EP is a precursor to a record to be made either with this material — you’ll note “Apache” already showed up on the first LP’s remaster — or other songs building off it, then this release only bodes well and shows the three-piece as ready to take on that task. What concerns me about that is the idea of this six-songer as an EP, as though a complete album would require more; either more songs or more runtime. It wouldn’t. If Begotten wanted to take the lessons from this demo and hit the studio to churn out the same songs in the same order, they’d have a tight, effective full-length. They have that now, just with a barebones, straightforward production that, by my estimate, doesn’t really hurt the songs as it is. In the post-Sleep largesse of “Levitator ADX,” one can hear hints of the psychedelic spaces the band are reaching for via the late wah of the guitar, and as a demo, that’s how it should be. That can certainly be expanded in a final version of a track, with layering, etc., but if Begotten are thinking a full-length needs to top 50 or even 40 minutes to be effective, all they need to do is listen to their own demo for proof to the contrary.

“Cold Earth,” “Levitator ADX” and “Apache” play out in order from shortest to longest, and as each one takes hold from the other, Begotten bring the listener deeper into a wide-open murk that still holds a foundation in the crunch of their tones. Sefcik is a grounding force for some of the jammier aspects, but well fluid enough in his style of play as to give Anselmo and Topaz room to explore riffs and melodies around that solid rhythm, and the upfront buzz of “Levitator ADX” and comparatively far-back riffing of “Apache” are indicative of the ability of the trio to shape their sound within the reaches of a mix. That only adds to the molten, classic stoner vibe so prevalent throughout 2018 Demo EP, and though the rest of what follows remains colored by the sludgy surge of “WhiteOut” early on, Begotten show that more than a decade and a half on from their debut, they have something to add to a New York heavy scene that’s cycled through a generation of followers in the time of their absence.

Given the length of time they were inactive, I won’t feign prescience as to what they’ll do next, but a demo says they’re evolving. You do a demo before you make a record of one sort or another. If that’s where Begotten are headed, they’ve given themselves some crucial lessons to learn with 2018 Demo EP, and in more than just nomenclature. One only hopes that if and as these songs do lead to another outing, the band holds firm to the aspects of their approach that seem to have carried over so effectively from their debut: their range, their ability to fluidly shift between tempos and aggression levels, their penchant for leaving structure behind when it suits the song, and so on. Strange to think of a band that got their start 22 years ago as holding promise, but Begotten‘s 2018 Demo EP is so much less about retread and so much more about looking forward that one could hardly do otherwise.

Begotten, 2018 Demo EP

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