Artist description Cream Abdul Babar fuse the most punishing aspects of hardcore/metal/noise/industrial/punk....a sonic hammer to the head. The band deals out a furious, thick crunch throughout, adroitly playing pulsing modern punk. At the same time, the band explores weird experimental soundscapes, subtely pushing the listener into less charted territory.

Music Style Hardcore/Metal/Experimental

Musical Influences Neurosis, Today Is The Day, Unsane, Dillinger Escape Plan, John Zorn, Deadguy, Melvins, Turmoil, Zao, Fantomas, Mastodon, Faith No More, Dwarves, ISIS, Brutal Truth, Reversal Of Man, Nile, Converge, Bane, Will Haven, Mr. Bungle, Naked City, Napalm Death, Slayer, Karp, Pigface, Dragbody

Similar Artists Neurosis, The Locust, Unsane, Deadguy, Karp, Pigface, Trans Am, Isis

Artist History Formed in October 1994, the band has toured the United States over 4 times. The band has a handful of releases under it's belt, including the punishing " Buried in Broken Glass" EP. Be on the lookout for a split CD with KYLESA on At A Loss Records, and a split 7" with MIRA (projekt records). What sets this band apart is the unconventional appearance of a trombone and keyboards. Never before has such a heavy band permanently incorporated a horn in the manner that Cream Abdul Babar has. In addition, the keyboards add an entirely new dimension of heavy to the band. C.A.B. play hook-laden haeviness. Brutal yet hummable. See Reviews of "THE CATALYST TO RUINS" on the band's website.

Group Members David=bass-o in your face-oDanny=guitarIan=screamingMike=devil's tromboneJ-Peace=drumsDerek=keyboardsTradd=noise

Instruments trombone, keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, vocals

Albums Catalyst To Ruins, Buried In Broken Glass, Backwater Of Masculine Ethics

Press Reviews EXCLAIM (Canada):With their excellent self-released EP, Buried In Broken Glass, and formidable live show, this Tallahassee seven-piece proved that they were ready to hang with the aggressive underground's most punishing and proficient acts. Their first full-length, The Catalyst To Ruins, delivers on all the potential of their EP, and with Neurosis exploring more sublime and restrained soundscapes, firmly places them with Isis as heirs to the throne. The overwhelming hypnotic droning and buffeting of Isis and Neurosis are just comparison points for CAB, as is the complexity and menace of Deadguy and the distorted glory of noise rock legends the Unsane, but while their influences are easily discernible, CAB stamps their own identity on the proceedings. Utilising trombone (real heavy metal), keyboards, a dual vocal attack and avant noise constructions intertwining amongst the albums 11 tracks, CAB employs repetitious dissonance and slower paces to heighten their damaging nature but always cut back to more hectic runs before monotony surpasses heaviness. With the keyboards and trombone more prevalent than in the past, Ian's increasingly manic vocals, a more focused performance and stand out tracks like "Kill People," "Empire of the Dead" and "Specialization is for Insects," The Catalyst to Ruins may be CAB's catalyst to greatness SINCERE BRUTALITY (USA): Please don't let the bizarre and silly name of the band throw you off. This CD is mind-numbing in power, curves, and exhilarating highs and lows. A band that is hard to classifyÉ mostly hardcore, but they break boundaries by adding a lot of noise. The closest comparisons I could make are bands like Isis and Neurosis, for their drony feel. On the other hand, CAB can take a pretty straight forward hardcore (+keyboard) type song like Song of Zarathustra that then launches into a long Merzbowesque huge bass and static noise collage interlude. There is also a trombone at times, but this is about as far from a ska band as something could get, so don't worry about that. "Empire of the Dead" starts out with a banjo, then has a pretty straight forward clean, breakdown that sounds a lot like Milemarker, but then gets all loud and fuzzy. The dueling vocals on this and several of the other tracks ("Kill People" and "It's hard to sue when you are laughing") battle to the death. Extremely killer. This CD is completely epic in nature, maybe like what I would have liked to have seen the direction of Milemarker to have gone with their newest album. The songs build upon themselves like high brick walls for jumping off into a far too shallow pool of sludge. The keyboards really add a lot to the standard hardcore format, but instead of just sounding "tacked on," they are completely intentional and almost as if the songs were built around them at times. But this isn't New Wave, the guitars and bass bend towards grind at point and never stray too horribly far from earthen metal hardcore (minus the soloing and posing). A band that isn't afraid to have a five minute introduction of hardcore power before the vocals kick in. Believe me, you should get this. DEEP FRIED BONANZA (USA):I feel kind of silly writing this review, because it will never be as perfectly descriptive as the seven-word review on the band's press release: "the Locust and Unsane in a blender." If you're familiar with those two bands, I will come no closer to giving a written description of Cream Abdul Babar's sound; all I hope to do is clarify the metaphor and perhaps give some extremely vague testimony of how great this band is to the people who don't know the aforementioned icons. "Kill People," the first track on the record, begins the disc with its most chaotic moment. Guitar, drums, keyboars, and vocals all rage in a way that is so completely insane and unpredictable that the instruments almost don't appear to be playing the same song. However, in the same way that the two unique guitar parts in most Leatherface songs are completely distinct but combine to form an almost transcendentally powerful whole, everything coalesces into an impressive noise without making the music sound like it's falling apart. The end of that track segues into an electronic/industrial sound collage that does an amazing job of taking the vibe of the song and running with it, only using a totally different sonic palette. Unlike, say, the instrumental "segues" on Cave In's Until Your Heart Stops LP, this electronic break really does sound like a continuation of the same song, not just a break from the admittedly brutal action. As the rest the album progresses, keyboards become increasingly important to the structure until "Todd Space Is My Night Job" gets so synth-y comparisons to the Faint would almost be more apt than comparisons to the Locust. Despite the fact that pretty much the entire disc is bone-jarringly heavy in at least some respect, variety really is Cream Abdul Babar's bread and butter, and tribal drumming on the Neurosis-esque "Blown Goat," some funky reggae-type basslines on "Empire of the Dead," and something that sounds like an extremely powerful baby playing with a broken, but nonetheless highly amplified, bass guitar on "Attack Ships On Fire" make one reassess what s/he thought the apocalypse would sound like. If you're a connoseiur of heavy music, of course you need this album, but those of you who simply flirt with the heavy stuff rather than having monogamous relationships with it should take note as well. The Catalyst to Ruins is an intricately textured piece of brutality; if there's a Radiohead of hardcore, Cream Abdul are certainly it, and this album is the Kid A of the 2002 hardcore scene. Buy it, see it, live it, love it, dip it in ranch dressing.

Additional Info split 7

Location Tallahassee, Florida - USA

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