Gersch

A long defunct Boston group, the Gersch played Unsane-inspired sludge metal in their short life in the late ’90s, releasing a lone single on Hydra Head’s then-fledgling sister imprint Tortuga Recordings. Bandleader Cliff Meyer left to join the Isis camp (and later Red Sparowes), while these recordings collected dust in the Tortuga vaults. "Listwish” steamrolls like a sloppy Zeni Geva, while "Magnificent Desolation” sounds like a Melvins tune played by a drunken Buzzov*en. "’Taker” sounds like Busse Woods-era Acid King covering the Melvins, and "Bloodbottom” wails like Solace aping Motörhead. "Residue Three” predates the guitar skronk of Boris’s Pink by nearly a decade, and "Face Pt. 2” slows to quarter-speed for greasy filth-core à la Rwake. "Face” and "Taekr” are woefully primitive noise, but the 13-minute "Your Lips Are No Man’s Land But Mine” is actually a spectacular doom reading of Pink Floyd’s "Dogs.” Tacked onto the end is a destructo cover of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s Kent State paean "Ohio,” which approaches the brilliance of Buzzov*en’s similar take on the Electric Light Orchestra’s "Don’t Bring Me Down” or Weedeater’s slant on CSN’s "Southern Cross.” In hindsight, The Gersch is a spurting tribute to a band — naturally — before their time.