The Willowtip Files: Kalibas – Product of Hard Living
By Saunders
Pennsylvania-based independent label Willowtip Records was established by Jason Tipton in the late ’90s. From humble beginnings, the label has stood the test of time, becoming one of the most respected and highly regarded record labels in the extreme metal scene. It takes something special to create a label with a consistently unfuckwithable roster of quality, innovative artists while retaining long-term integrity and durability. Willowtip is the self-proclaimed forward-thinking label, releasing a slew of modern classics and top-shelf albums that may have a lower profile but are more than worth your while.
This feature focuses on a pivotal early period in the label’s history that had a huge impact on my own extreme metal tastes. As such, I am highlighting some outstanding albums released by Willowtip between 2001-2006. Some are lesser-known; however, I will argue are must-listen releases from the label’s early golden era. I will skip over a couple of particularly pivotal albums from the period more suited for Yer Metal Is Olde honors; otherwise, it’s open slather. Welcome to the Willowtip Files.
Off the back of an especially gnarly, high-quality year for death metal of experimental, dissonant, and abrasive varieties, what better time to venture back into the vault of The Willowtip Files? The subject of this latest edition is none other than now-defunct New York tech-deathgrind powerhouse Kalibas and their intelligent and violently unhinged debut LP, Product of Hard Living, released way back in 2002. Reflected in the inspirational timeline of this feature’s focus, these were productive early years in the label’s storied history. However, through the passage of time, certain underground gems can be overlooked and fall into obscurity, despite being inspired albums of the time. Particularly suited to listeners who got on board with the latest albums from the likes of Pyrrhon and Replicant, those who enjoy the grindier, techier, and dissonant styles of death metal may find something to dig here. Kalibas stood out as a unique force to be reckoned with.
Featuring a talented cast of metal musicians and ex-members of bands including Lethargy, As the World Burns, and Agiel, Kalibas had a short but potent career as underground anarchists armed with a belligerent, serrated collection of weaponry, where tech, grind, disso-death and hardcore collide in ugly, challenging yet deceptively infectious ways. The choppy, technical, and challenging music within the Kalibas experience retains cohesion through the controlled chaos. Although far from accessible, the raw, yet well-defined and punchy production, coupled with the band’s penchant for unleashing jagged, deceptively catchy riffs and curb-stomping grooves, graft a surprisingly catchy edge to the album’s sneakily addictive streak. Of course, the album is devoid of more conventional songwriting structures and traditional songcraft. However, regular exhibits of deranged, infectiously riffy madness on grind-driven delights like the wickedly unhinged “All of Japa,” or swaggering grooves and drop-on-a-dime time changes and dynamic shifts of closer “Reroute the Foul” to drag you back for more.
Elsewhere, opener “Smells Like Menopause” hits like a sledgehammer upside the skull, leveraging blasty pummels, grindy screams and propulsive rhythms, with knuckle-dragging grooves and sharp technicality. Product of Hard Living is a clever, intricate beast that adroitly interlocks its brainy, dynamic songwriting and harsher escapades with the right amount of down-and-dirty deathgrind nastiness. Careening through filth-riden and tactful shifts, from thrashy deathgrind salvos and brain-scrambling attacks (“Floating in Concrete,” “Take the Plunge”), to noisy, sludge-riden hardcore rumbles (‘Rundown”) and ample terrain covered between, it’s an album chock-full of unpredictable twists. Product of Hard Living just breaks the thirty-minute barrier, and like similar extreme albums of its ilk, forms a near-perfect runtime to digest the abrasive shards of extremity and unconventional songwriting approach. without completely overwhelming the senses.
Product of Hard Living twists, contorts, and hurtles forth in a myriad of strange and artistic directions within the harsh paradigms of the extreme metal lens. Undeniably brutal, Kalibas’ debut album remains an underrated jewel in the early Willowtip canon, skillfully integrating harsh dissonance, abrasive textures, aggro intensity, and bone rattling grooves into intelligently constructed arrangements, featuring a fiercely inventive, oddly infectious songwriting streak. A challenging, though deeply rewarding listen.
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