ChokingOnBile Demo Reviews

Here are two demo reviews straight from the underground, this time from France. ChokingOnBile (briefly called Bowling For Columbine) have two demos to date, Disgruntled from 2004 (the same songs are on an 05 split) and Bowling For Columbine which came out this year. I'll work my way chronologically through these.

Disgruntled is actually a fairly mature sounding release, considering it's a first demo and the songs are called "Growls", "Grunts", and "Screams". The sound is somewhere between the Californian and Texan styles. Deeds of Flesh-esque tremelo riffs trade off with rather typical grooves to produce a varied and decently enjoyable listening experience. You can get a better version of this from Human Filleted, but this is a demo after all. Overall a decent offering and above the typical myspace slam line (like the Mendoza Line but for slam bands). One thing I really didn't like about this was the samples. They were pretty retarded and took away from the whole experience. I don't mind humorous samples on principle, but they usually work better for bands like Torsofuck or Cumbeast who are actually established as good bands.

Bowling For Columbine is a recent release and shows a slightly different move for the band. The tremolo riffs are still there but the emphasis is more on the groovier side of things. I think for this demo the band took a little more time on riff writing and it shows. There are some legitimately good and memorable riffs here. A few times I felt that the riffs were disjointed, but the individual riffs were very good. If ChokingOnBile can keep the riff writing skills they showcase here and further hone their songwriting skills, I can see some sick stuff coming from this band. One more thing I liked from this demo is the weird fuzzed out production. I might not like it on a full album, but it was cool here.

Overall I think this band could do something good in the future. There are better prospects out there to be sure (MP5k!!!!!!) but this is decent stuff. Worth a listen.