It’s a sound as old and weathered as the metamorphic bedrock under Chapel Hill, yet Bitter Resolve’s growl and grit also implies the living tectonic forces that oh-so-patiently shape the landscape itself. In debut LP Bows and Arrows Against the Lightning, the trio hearkens to heavy metal’s very inception. Blues riffage is subverted and given sharp, unwieldy angles: drumwork is freed from its traditional homogeneous plod and allowed to move laterally: and the distortion on that bass is just thick enough to give a contact buzz.
Chapel Hill and the Triangle area, until recently, had precious little heavy music to offer: the field is wide-open for Bitter Resolve’s brand of stoner-heaviness. Drummer Lauren Fitzpatrick’s beats are expressive and asymmetrical – she builds them, hammer and nail, from the ground up rather than subscribing to established rock drummer tropes. Walsh chugs with pagan defiance on a bass a year older than Black Sabbath. And guitarist R. Corey Dial grins euphorically, playing with his entire body as he solos or crunches along. His enthusiasm is as infectious as the patient thickness of music not evolved from, but born alongside 70s hard-smoking proto-metal.
The record demands high-volume treatment and the live show is full-body experience, like a medieval battle witnessed firsthand, as Bitter Resolve fights for every inch of ground on some rugged, battered field.
Discography:
Bows and Arrows Against the Lightning. (2011)
Links:
http://bitterresolve.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/bitterresolve
