The Austerity Program - Black Madonna

It’s with good reason that Black Madonna, the latest record from New York’s The Austerity Program, is the release of the week over at Aquarius Records right now. Actually there are a number of good reasons, as more of them seem to pop up every time I give this album a spin. For those that missed out on the bands debut EP Terra Nova that came out in 2003, I would highly recommend not passing over Black Madonna.

The Austerity Program consists of members Justin Foley (guitar/vocals), Thad Calabrese (bass), and a drum machine simply called “drum machine”. They had the drum machine listed as an official member on the bands MySpace so I didn’t want to hurt its feelings, plus it plays a vital role in shaping the bands overall sound so I can’t really forget it now can I? Anyway, sometimes I can be a bit weary of a drum machine, especially going in with no idea on how it’s going to be utilized. Am I going to hear some cheesy ass beat for about 50 minutes? Is it just going to be ridiculously fast as in the “yeah, we’re using a fucking drum machine” approach? It’s always an interesting experience one way or another. Hearing The Austerity Program for the first time when they released Terra Nova was one of those blind experiences going in. However within a few seconds of listening to the EP I began to notice that these guys were obviously down with Big Black and with that all my worries were quickly washed away by a pulverizing force of loud as hell bass and guitar.

On Black Madonna the band are still waving the mid-nineties math/noise-rock flag high and mighty proudly judging by the tunes on this record; harkening back to just about anything and everything that was noisy and punishing back then. Black Madonna finds the band expanding their sound a bit, ranging from slower and sludgy at times or just busting out into an extremely mathy freakout like on “Song 12”. Oh yeah, don’t forget the drum machine, it’s back there too working its ass off. Actually, the drum machine is used quite conservatively and as the Aquarius review made mention of, it often comes close to sounding like a live drummer. Really though, Black Madonna is just a well rounded display of two dudes (with a drum machine) that know what the fuck they are doing when it comes to fully rocking with just a bass and a guitar setup. It’s full of buzzing low-end and enough riffing to satisfy just about anyone I would think, or hope. I mean honestly…what more do you want!?!

The Austerity Program – Song 17A [MP3]

If you’re digging the music, then by all means head on over to Hydrahead and pick this up. As most could probably already assume, this comes highly recommended, so please support these guys. Enjoy!