The band Suckling from Austin, Texas featuringScratch Acid guitar player Brett Bradford is not what what I thought when looking at their influences. From the album art and the impressive list of contributors I was expecting track one to be sludgey and less pop. The feel overall is very mid to late 90's Alt Rock with some prog elements thrown in. The band has almost a schizophrenic appeal as sometimes I hear a little Psychedlic Furs and then a little bit of Tool and splash of Alice In Chains or Stone Temple Pilots but by track 3 "With A Little Bit Of Spit" the band experiments with bluesy rock. Track 4 "Mean A Nine" was more what I was expecting from a band that has members and guest appearences of a bunch of darker heavier bands, a dancey grunge driven noisey thrasher. 

In Suckling I hear a lot of what made some of the early 90's Alternative scene great. It's like Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden before those bands were writing poppy radio songs. It hits like loud abrasive prog-ish rock minus a pop chorus and instead grinds away on a feel like Soundgarden's "Rusty Cage" or Nirvana's "School". It has that quality of a band getting together and just writing songs that focus on that moment and what they've come up with. It feels less pretentious than a lot of newer music and more organic although it does rely on it's influences. 

The album alsofeatures guest appearances by fellow Austin, TX luminaries like ReyWasham(Scratch Acid, Ministry, Helios Creed), Jeff Pinkus(Butthole Surfers,Melvins) and Frank Garymartin(Pain Terns).  The album hits stores February 17th via Texas indie label Australian Cattle God. Had a hard time finding any of the new music but in the meantime enjoy some of the older material the band has released via their bandcamp page.