Jungle Juice - "Involuntary Convulsions" Review

The mighty Give Praise Records is gearing up to release a plethora of new facegrinding records this season, hopefully most of which I'll hopefully be covering on here. One of the freshest faces in the upcoming roster is Jungle Juice, a hardcore band from little ol' Little Rock, Arkansas. Much like the alcoholic concoction of which they're named after, their new 8 song effort, "Involuntary Convulsions", is a mixed bag of stuff and things. On this EP you'll get a heavy serving of hardcore, 15 second powerviolence bursts, sludge, and...atmospheric acoustic interludes? Yeah, you heard me right. Don't flee in terror yet though, because Jungle Juice definitely do not dwell on un-abrasive characteristics like that. JJ know how do dish out the heavy jams, and they bring it to you raw (very raw). Though given that there is a lot of different influences on here, I am naturally left with some mixed feelings. First off, the guitar tone is excellent. Thick and chunky, just how I like it, and when the band busts into those Sabbath-y riffs, it's a beautiful thing. The hardcore stylings are great too; awesome breakdowns and hateful aggression. But there are some parts where I'm just left saying, "huh, why?". The shorter songs on here seem like they're in there just because they can be, and the guitar solos at the ends of the tracks, "Constant Decay" and "Human Limit" really just leave a bad taste in my mouth. Unfortunately, that means I have some issues with half the songs on here. Jungle Juice are a prime example of a band that could release something absolutely killer, if they just fleshed out and fine-tuned their sound a bit. But overall, I did enjoy this EP, and I'm eager to see what this band comes up with next.

Rating: 6.5/10

~VII