Earthrise – Eras Lost

June 19, 2012 • self-released

Yes, it's true! There is a good sludge full-length out this year! Hooray! No, really, it's about time; everything except Islands has been disappointing, but Earthrise has filled the void well.

As expected, Eras Lost takes the slow, plodding approach a lot of the time, keeping things ferociously heavy when it can, though there is a bit of prog influence here and there with some polyrhythmic mathy bits and whatnot. The album therefore pretty much runs on its riffs, but they're strong riffs to be sure—very powerful, sometimes catchy.

On the whole, the songwriting is decent, but the band doesn't really do much to push the bar and try anything new for the genre, so it's entirely understandable to feel jaded when listening to this album. The songs also have a tendency to wander—many of them don't have a "main" section to build on, instead going from one part to the next, often very quickly, which is fine sometimes but usually here it makes the music hard to follow.

On a smaller scale, though, the instrumentation is fantastic. The drumming is a highlight for sure; it never seems to get repetitive or stale and does a great job at backing up the guitars and keeping things interesting. The guitar lines themselves are fairly typical—lots of chugging and textural sustains, nothing new for sludge metal—but I suppose they do exactly what they ought to: be heavy, be dissonant, make some nice feedback.

Okay so it's not fantastic, but it's at least decent and there are a few moments of greatness here and there. It's definitely enough to tide me over until the next great metal album of the year.

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