Widely hailed as a classic, this album shaped a new trajectory for Rock music. Slint wasn’t out there to sell a ton of records or to be noticed in the media. Instead, according to all involved, they made an album that was an intense psychological experience. It was so psychologically intense that the band split up between recording and release, and some of the band members ended up in psychiatric hospitals afterwards, no joke. Which is weirdly cool for this sort of music. The band finally were in the right place at the right time to deliver this album, just before Grunge took off. This should be an album worth a deep dive into, so let’s hear it.

Breadcrumb Trail begins the album with some gorgeous guitar parts, and this tune has a strange yet awesome feel to it. Brian McMahan rambles over the top of it all, rather than singing. This instantly sounds like a great tune and has a great cohesive feel about it. It quickly launches into a dark and demonic sounding piece, before some good screaming enters. This sounds completely different to anything else out there and is also consistently good. Therefore, this is a winner. A wonderful listen, and the sounds on this album are really fantastic. This is quite like Joy Division, minus the depressing bits. The guitars on this song are super crunchy and well-played. An awesome tune to hear, Black Sabbath would be happy to hear this music. It is awesome and extremely well done, and sounds super eerie. A cool tune, it ends with the main verses playing the awesome guitar riff, before concluding. A very enjoyable listening experience, it is nearly six minutes of great music that you must hear. Brilliant.

Nosferatu Man is the main song of this album. For those of you who don’t know who Nosferatu is, it is an adaptation of the Dracula character popularised by author Bram Stoker. It begins with some loose percussion and nicely played guitars that sound disturbing. The singing enters which is barely audible, but it is supposed to be like this on this album. Soon enough, the chorus enters with some awesome screaming present, mixed in with the murmuring. This is a brooding and awesome listen, and it has some really excellent and suspenseful guitar playing throughout. The screaming on this song reportedly was so hard and intense that Brian McMahan was sick afterwards. This is already instant classic status as an album, and we aren’t even halfway through it yet. A great piece of Post-Rock music that essentially works. It is one of the best five plus minute songs you will ever hear in your life. Therefore, this must be heard. Towards the end is an epic climax that sounds really cool. This song ends with some excellently sustained guitars. Definitely worth listening to.

Don, Aman begins with some spoken words, and some dark and eerie guitar, launching quickly into a very subtle and subdued piece of music. Slint deserves great credit for creating music that is of the dark side of the mind. This is a real inspired piece of music, which is possibly a decent 1991 best album rival for Nirvana’s Nevermind album. After some time, the guitar parts play by themselves, and get very interesting and suspenseful. This is a fantastic listen throughout, and is very suspenseful. It is dark, eerie and decent listening musically. The guitar playing on this is absolutely superb, and this tune sounds very much like something that should be out of a horror film. A wonderful and well delivered tune. The second half has even more intense guitar in the left channel that only adds to the eerie atmosphere. This slows right down and has more deep and dark murmering. A strange and weird tune, and a great six minutes plus of listening. The main song ends prematurely, followed by some fuzzy guitar playing. Brilliant.

Washer is the longest piece here at well over eight minutes long. It begins with about 20 seconds of near silence, prior to the band launching into another brilliant tune to listen to. Nonetheless, this is again an excellent effort. It sounds very pretty and natural for dark music. A wonderful and awesome listen, this music is great and simple. The minimalism on this tune isn’t boring. Instead, it is a pretty and dark artform here. There is a huge amount of suspense on this song, which fits the music perfectly. A very enjoyable listen, the guitar riff repeated throughout is absolutely gorgeous. Of course, it is more of an instrumental than a song, but it still sounds wonderful, even today. The whispered lyrics throughout are a nice touch, and likely influenced Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to do the same. In the second half a change in the guitar riffing and drumming make this more intense music than in the first half. The instruments all duke it out for first place, and this sounds really great, unlike anything else ever recorded. More whispered lyrics follow, with some very subtle music to match. This is very suspenseful. Towards the end, a fuzzy guitar laden solo section emerges and we launch into a noisy, furious sounding song section. If you have eight minutes to spare, do check out this song. An excellent piece of music, this is very good to hear. Great work by Slint. The guitar riffs and drums repeat for some time until the conclusion. Excellent work.

For Dinner… begins with a subtle intro with bass guitar and drums. This is so dark and unusual that many people will consider this music a bit weird. Soon enough, this tune gets going and sounds again, like the other songs on this album, dark and eerie. If this is an unofficial concept album, it’d be about freaking out to dark and foreboding music. The tune present is very deep, dark and unsettling. No vocals are present here, but the instrumentation paints a bleak picture on this tune. A great musical journey through the dark and unknown. The sounds and musicality on this song are just pure brilliance. A really top listen, this is a good and dark listening experience for all who hear this tune. Towards the end is a sort of jam based groove that sounds really terrific, before this song concludes. Good work.

Good Morning, Captain is the last song on this rather short album. It goes well over seven minutes, however. It begins with some twisted and eerie guitar parts, with a decent tune based groove here and murmered singing. A cool repeated bass guitar riff then enters, and this tune gets going nicely. A great and interesting listen, this is awesome to hear, even today. In fact, this album changed the way Rock music was at the time, much like The Velvet Underground did. Soon enough, overdriven guitars enter briefly, followed by a return to the verses here. A really awesome tune, proving the fact that this is dark and deep music that makes an impact. Towards the middle there is a suspenseful build up, followed by an excellent guitar riff. This eventually leads into a heavily overdriven tune that sounds impressive. A chaotic listen, but a gentle, quiet sort of chaos here. The second half is more of the same, with some excellent playing and musicianship throughout. The spoken word lyrics are fantastic here, and the whole tune sounds as though it is a warped horror story. This song reaches a climax towards the end of the song, with loud and overdriven guitars and some noisy drumming. A screamed vocal section is here, which is really excellent. Enjoyable and twisted, a great album concludes at this point.

This is a wonderful album that it is great listening. So great, in fact that much like the early work of The Velvet Underground, this is a legendary musical listening experience that influenced many, many bands along the way since 1991. It is dark, dense and minimal, and the alternating between whispering and screaming throughout this album make this a real winner. Despite the troubles of the group, this album is widely recognised as a solid gold classic. Which it really is. Seek this out today if you can.

Dark and deep.

9/10