Slope – “Purple Me”
![](https://static.stereogum.com/uploads/2021/01/Slope-Street-Heat-1610035983.jpg)
In recent years, a whole lot of hardcore bands have been messing around with the kinds of sounds that you might encounter on ’90s alt-rock radio. That’s taken a lot of different forms. Turnstile sometimes project a certain early Foo Fighters energy. Higher Power have a whole lot of Jane’s Addiction in their vocals. You can hear nü-metal riffs in Vein’s chaotic frenzy. And now the German band Slope are bringing back the sound of ’90s funk-metal.
Slope, from Duisberg, have a fun, churning, stomping sound. There’s a lot of bass-heavy bounce in the band’s music, and they’ve never been afraid to go for full-on silliness. The band has released two EPs, 2014’s Helix and 2017’s Losin’ Grip, that are probably more Infectious Grooves than Suicidal Tendencies. But I wasn’t prepared for just how far into funk-metal the band would go on their new track “Purple Me.”
“Purple Me” is the first track from Street Heat, the band’s just-announced debut album, and it’s a wild banger of a song that sounds a lot like Mother’s Milk-era Red Hot Chili Peppers. Certain lyrics — “I’m just a funky monkey, a lighter in my hand” — are the most Anthony Kiedis things that Anthony Kiedis never wrote. The song switches up tempos a whole lot, moving from psychedelic dirge-metal to adrenalized mostpit fuel and then back again. The music video tells the story of a young man with a rock for a head. This shit is nuts. Check it out below.
Street Heat is out 3/12 on BDHW Records.