Rwake – Hell Is a Door to the Sun

2002 • Retribute Records

For some reason I've always thought that Rwake is a much more popular band than they actually are; they seem to exemplify the typical southern sludge sound that a lot of people like (although I've never been a huge fan of it, outside the occasional Neurosis bit). Anyway, it makes sense that their earlier stuff like Hell Is a Door to the Sun isn't listened to much because it's not particuarly good, even if they have managed to improve their music since.

To be honest there aren't really a whole lot of flaws in the album; what I take issue with is that the album just winds up being a bit generic-sounding and at times amateurish and sloppy. Not the production; that's actually pretty good, the music sounds well-put together. But the songwriting tends to fall flat—at times it seems like they don't really know what they're doing or what the best ways to progress the songs are. Often it winds up sounding like they are trying to be an early-Neurosis ripoff band, with similar drum patterns, bass riffs, and long and rambly songs. The difference is that Neurosis knew how to do that well; a lot of the time listening to Rwake just makes me want to listen to Neurosis.

Oh and the vocals are pretty awful. I think there is only one vocalist, but it's hard to tell for sure because his style is all over the place—some high screams, some mid-range growls, some clean shouted stuff that doesn't even make a lot of sense... it's definitely the biggest factor contributing to the amateurish sound and the biggest flaw for me. I can tolerate them if I'm not really concentrating but for a lot of people who are already hesitant towards harsh vocals in general this will be a complete turn-off.

I'm probably being too harsh, as there are more than a few good things about the album. Rwake does manage to pull off some nice heavy riffs, and when they get to chugging they can chug with the best of them. The quiter sections sound pretty good too (although the harsh vocals don't fit in those parts at all) and when they do pull together for the more aggressive parts it does sound pretty good. It's just not quite enough to really make them anything terribly special or worth listening to above all the other stonerish sludge bands there are.

Rwake is definitely an immature band on Hell Is a Door to the Sun and supposedly their newer albums are better (I haven't listened yet) so I would say give this album a pass. It may be fun for a listen or two but it doesn't offer anything new or unique, and sometimes it falls flat on its face (see "The Stoner Tree", an embarrassment of a song), and there are a ton of more worthy albums like this out there.

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