June 2012 • Alone Records
Adrift is another one of those relatively-obscure sludge bands that I know of from some random blog, though their first album that I heard, Monolito, was decent if a little unmemorable. With their new one Black Heart Bleeds Black, they still aren't up there with the greats although they have shown a definite improvement.
Althought it definitely falls squarely into sludge metal territory, Adrift's sound does have a very mathy edge to it—lots of polyrhythmic riffs, complex drum grooves, fast tempos, and such—though they don't let technicality get in the way of being heavy when they need to be. It's a bit difficult to describe what's going on most of the time but they do use a lot of common "post-metal" tropes, like low-end dissonant guitar lines tightly meshed with higher melodic lines. The faster tempos and complex rhythms help keep things interesting and fast-paced and Adrift changes things up quite a bit.
I guess my main problem with Adrift is that, despite being pretty good, their songwriting is really unmemborable. Maybe it's just me, but none of these songs really click with me and it's hard to get into a groove with what they are doing. It's weird, because this isn't bad music... sitting here thinking about it, it's good, but later when I think about the album as a whole I can't really remember what I liked about it.
Despite enjoying this album, I have a feeling it's not going to get many spins in the future and I'll once again forget what Adrift sounds like. It's a shame, because they're a pretty good band, all things considered, and probably worth checking out for a lot of people—just not me.
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