Gator Bait Ten are a supergroup of sorts, but a deeply weird one. Consider the band's bloodline: it was founded by guitarist
M. Gregor Filip (
the Blood of Heroes) and bassist/organist
Simon J. Smerdon (
Mothboy), who were joined by bassist
Submerged (
the Blood of Heroes,
Method of Defiance) and drummer
Ted Parsons (
Swans,
Godflesh,
Prong). If all of this leads you to expect deep, dark riffs, nuclear-powered drones, and sludgy, death-invoking beats, then you're on the right track. Is it enjoyable? Well, it does grow on you. "Trawl," the album-opening track, may induce a bit of eye-rolling with its ponderous non-beat and portentous, harmonically static roar. But by the time you get to "Red Van," the richness of the band's sonic stew has become more apparent: here the beat seems a bit less seasick, the layers of sound more densely packed, the harmonic structure (which is not to say the harmonic movement; there's still precious little of that) more artfully organized. Wondering if you were missing something during the first part of the album, you skip back -- and sure enough, you notice subtleties that were easy to miss on first listen, like the wind-on-the-tundra feedback touches on "Groundswell" and the unsettled beauty of the drifting harmonic cloud formations on "Trace Depth." Is it a party record? No, and it's probably not one you want to cue up if you're already in a bad mood. But it does reward close listening.