Retrash
Oozing Wound is Zack Weil (guitar, vocals), Kevin Cribbin (bass), and Kyle Reynolds (drums), young men that have established themselves in the volatile Chicago underground in a short time, playing in Cacaw, Unmanned Ship, ZATH, Bad Drugs, and countless other groups that have populated packed, sweaty basements and lofts throughout the city. Simultaneously hilarious and terrifying, their debut album, Retrash, is made for people who have no faith in melody and happiness, and no resistance to heavy riffage. This is music by and for people with a desire to slay. The band channels their inner 15 year old, offering little distinction between comedy and antagonism. As Weil puts it, Oozing Wound is defined by, “loud fucking guitars and screaming and shit. We don’t sing, and we don’t write big choruses. Anything like that gets checked by the wayside because, fuck it, it’s not us.” The songs on Retrash use humor to defend against and explore the anger, paranoia, and destruction that characterize life in the modern era. The line between hysterical and histrionic is tread with little regard for anything at all. “See you later, alligator” Weil howls in “Welcome to the Spaceship, Motherfucker,” as he channels a fever dream of the Biblical Joseph after discovering Mary’s pregnancy. “No more faker, doppelganger/No more false child of mine.” At the core of every song is a riff, or collection of riffs: from the ur-thrash of the gut-punching opener “Everyone I Hate Should Be Killed” to the sludgy noise of “New York Bands,” Retrash is a blast of pure energy put forth with simplicity and fury. Retrash was recorded at Electrical Audio and Studio Chicago in two 12-hour sessions by their friend Matt Russell, and follows the Vape and Pillage cassette on Reynolds’ own Rotted Tooth Recordings. These recordings were not made for laptop speakers or ear buds, and are meant to be played as loud as possible.
Chicago band Oozing Wound's debut Retrash has been called crossover due to its punk influence, but it's also got grittiness and snottiness more thrash bands could use. The collection is one of the year's most notable thrash mutations.
This Chicago trio is a band who play thrash music with a sense of humour, here delivering a seven-song lesson in riffs.
Aside from the odd sludgier moment, Oozing Wound plays a frantic, punkish, riff-heavy brand of snotty thrash, with nothing so pifflingly compromising as a chorus or so cringingly onanistic as a guitar solo.
Your boss screams at you at the morning staff meeting. Your boyfriend or girlfriend dumps you, by text