July 2009 • self-released
Another post-metal band jumping on the post-metal bandwagon—in fairness, in 2009 the genre wasn't as saturated as it is now, though it's been hard to pick the good bands out of the bad lately. Admittedly, I was pretty impressed by Sunden and it still registers with me as a pretty darn good album.
Without vocals, writing decent sludge metal can be a daunting task (as any Pelican ex-fan knows, it's tough to keep it going very long and still be good at it). The Waters Deep Here's songs are much more textural than riff-oriented, though still with some complex and interesting drum lines and clean guitars, not unlike a drier and simpler Rosetta or Swallow the Ocean. They tend to eschew the typical buildup-and-climax formula for a more fast-paced start-stop style, which keeps things interesting and is relatively rare with similar bands. It makes them seem particularly heavy, as well, when the distorted riffs and frantic drums kick in abruptly after an airy introduction. The riffs themselves are unusually fast as well, with perhaps a bit of metalcore influence in there.
Why this is particularly interesting is that the album's bulk is made up of three very long tracks, all over twelve minutes. With as little repetition as Sunden has, one would imagine that the music would be too meandering and hard to follow; however the band manages to avoid this for the most part. Motifs are rare, but come in often enough to make each track seem relatively coherent and singular.
The interludes are a bit superfluous, especially there being four of them—more than "actual" songs—though the middle two are good for giving the ears a rest, so they're not completely in vain although they are a bit generic and bland.
Anyway, this album is definitely one of the better slept-on / surprise hits for me, so it's worth checking out for anyone into the recent post-metal scene.
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