Big Business

Uriah Heep woke up one morning to find itself reincarnated as two skinny Americans from Seattle who grew up on too much hardcore and Conan movies. These two men, drummer Coady Willis and bassist/vocalist Jared Warren, had previously served in a plethora of notable Northwest bands, including downright legendary ones like Murder City Devils, Karp and Tight Bros From Way Back When. But their new duo, Big Business, takes the Heep's megalithic heaviness and crams it into a bare bass-and-drums setup, even as it melts together the fantasy-metal aspiration of Godheadsilo with the embolism-clogged viscosity of Comets on Fire. The twosome's self-titled debut EP is a four-song pile-driver of sludge and majesty, the prelude to Head for the Shallow, its upcoming full-length on Hydrahead. It sure as hell isn't easy listening -- or Easy Livin'.