“I got a Plaguefever, and the only prescription is more Crude Implements.“
— Producer Bruce Dickinson
Plaguefever are a metal band from Virginia. Sometime earlier this year one of the band members found his way to Iceland and dropped off a few copies of their 2021 record Crude Implements at Lucky Records, one of which then found it’s way into a pile flagged with a Post-It upon which was written “Jeff”, and subsequently came back across the Atlantic to The Greater Seattle AreaTM and my turntable. I wonder which guy it was – Collector, Neglector, or Infector? No matter. What does matter, however, is whether or not this album can be said to rock.
In fact, that can be said with confidence. It fucking rocks very much.
Plaguefever amalgamate multiple kinds of metal – black, speed, doom, and New Wave of British Heavy. You want riffs? They got ’em. Vocal growls? Check. Blast beats? You bet your Chuck Taylors they do. It all comes together in putrid, plague-y perfection on the title track, “Crude Implements”, as good a metal song as you’ll find anywhere. “Cage Of Gods” brings the blackest of metal, with the vocals just clear enough that I can understand them, and the opening riff of “Toppling the Ikons”? Sublime in it’s two-ton heaviness.
Don’t let the fact that Crude Implements only has six songs scare you away – the guys give you your money’s worth, with two of these evil tracks clocking in at over eight minutes apiece. Only 100 copies were pressed on vinyl, so go on over to their Bandcamp page HERE and grab yourself one while you still can. While you’re there I’d also suggest checking out their sophomore effort, Flail Of Pestilence, which is due to drop in a couple of days, and maybe pick that one up as well. You won’t regret it. Unless you suck and hate metal. Which, that’s on you, friend. But if you’re a metal fan, Plaguefever got you.