Couch Slut – My Life As A Woman (Handshake Inc.)

Couch Slut – My Life As A Woman (Handshake Inc.)

My Life As A Woman displayed metal’s dualistic nature better than most albums this year. It was both engagingly smart and terrifyingly blunt, a night out in the streets of Couch Slut’s native NYC if there ever was one. Within its huge walls of noise-rock distortion sat skronking jazz, the confrontational theater of Oxbow, and clever experiments in rhythm. But Couch Slut’s lashing ferocity was their calling card. The vocal performance is undoubtedly affecting; sometimes feeling like an exorcism, other times an indictment. It’s a pressure valve releasing what society keeps bottled. However, like the rest of the band’s primal howl, it’s also inclusive in a way a lot of these types of records aren’t. It’s not embarrassingly voyeuristic. You aren’t pushed to the outside while these artists undergo catharsis. Instead, you’re invited to join them while the painful tumult brought forth by their own hands evens inequities by leeching away pent up frustrations. –Ian [LISTEN]