Callisto – Secret Youth

January 30, 2015 • Svart Records

I really don't know how to approach Callisto anymore. True Nature Unfolds has been an essential favorite of mine for ages, and Noir is almost equally spectacular. The band really shifted with Providence into softer, more melodic territory with clean vocals and a less-than-standard sludge-lite sound. I tried to like it, but I don't think it ever truly clicked for me. It seems like Secret Youth is more of the same—and equally confusing.

One one level, somewhere deep down, it's still the same Callisto I've loved since I first heard them in 2006. The slow, plodding, melancholy riffs and textures are still there, and occasionally an echo of the gritty Noir production leaks through (e.g. the intros to "Backbone" or "Beasts of Mothers"). And there are a lot of sections I really do like, sections where they might get especially heavy and rhythmic and that remind me a little bit of what they used to sound like.

But I still can't bring myself to get excited about this album, and no matter how many times I sit through it, it just doesn't do anything for me; it still feels kind of cliché. Not that their first two albums were that innovative, but they at least had this really special quality to the songwriting that made them stand apart, and it's gone now. The songs feel more like they're just trying to support the vocals rather than do something neat with the music itself. Callisto used to be the kind of band that put the music first—maybe that's what's changed them: being so vocal-centric.

I guess it's just time to throw in the towel and finally admit it to myself: Callisto just isn't really a good band anymore. And that sucks a lot, because they're such a huge reason of why I listen to a lot of what I do. It's good that they gave us two great albums when they did; I just won't really be looking forward to their next album quite so much.

Justin Jackson – Rosetta: Audio/Visual

December 25, 2014 • self-released

I love that this exists. Not many bands get their own documentary, especially when they're not huge mainstream acts, and when one that's already one of your all-time favorite bands gets one it's fantastic. Audio/Visual is more or less a brief chronicle of the band's history, from their formation to the present day, as well as some insight into Translation Loss Records and the relationship between the two. As someone who's followed the band way on the outside for almost ten years, it's really neat to see how their timeline and their experiences were going during that time.

It's really interesting to see the breakup of a band from its label from both sides at once, and a bit sad as well, as it's clear both sides wanted to make things work but the business got in the way so much it tore everything apart. The last third of the film, where Rosetta is making The Anaesthete and stressing over if they will even be able to continue as a band, is a surprisingly tense section (even knowing how things went) and makes for great film. It was pretty cool to see some details about their lives outside of the band as well, and the interviewees get lots of opportunities to philosophize and talk about their personal feelings and experiences, giving the film a very personal and intimate feel at times.

If you've seen any metal documentary before, on a technical level there isn't much to surprise you here. Plenty of interviews with the members, their friends, and their label, all paired with some nice concert footage, in-studio footage, and some montages of scenes of Philadelphia and around the world as they tour. The use of stock footage—mostly old clips of manufacturing plants—was a really great way to add some atmosphere and personality to the story.

As far as indie documentaries go, this one is very well-made and does a great job of presenting its material, especially for a topic that's kind of niche. (Or maybe I just underestimate how big Rosetta has gotten, which is entirely possible.) Even to people who aren't familiar with the band, it still paints a great story of a band struggling to make ends meet while keeping their creative vision intact, something that anyone who's into music can appreciate.

Official site

Sarin – Burial Dream

January 17, 2015 • self-released

I haven't really been listening to a ton of sludge metal lately. I still love the genre but it seems like there's less and less coming out each year that really piques my interest. But now and again I'll stumble on a band that rekindles my faith a little and reminds me why I love the genre so much. Recently it's been Sarin, whose 2013 EP House of Leaves I really enjoyed (but never covered). Their first full-length is finally out and I couldn't be happier.

There's a pretty blatant debt owed to early–mid Isis, and maybe Pelican and Godflesh, on a lot of these tracks—at points I feel like the music could have been ripped straight from Isis' Oceanic—although I bring this up in the most positive light possible. Sarin pulls off a similar combination of slow, churning, clean-guitar buildups and huge, heavy, crunchy, pounding riffs; even the vocalists sound very similar. Maybe it's just my personal love for the atmospheric sludge style (and the fact that I do miss Isis somewhat) but the band knows what they're doing and they've gotten fantastic at it.

Take, for instance, the intro to "Monograph". Slow—plodding, almost—drums, echoing clean guitars, pretty typical stuff. But it has this really nice melodic aspect to it (probably has something to do with the major key) that lulls you in, so when the heavy guitars kick on two minutes in, still with the excellent melody and emotional resonance, it's just an awesome experience. They take the genre's natural tendency towards repetition and make it work in their favor really well; the song shifts into a more sinister minor key by the end but you barely notice as it goes. "Reverse Mirror" does something kind of similar, but uses that kind of interplay and buildup to conclude the album in a very satisfying way.

I suppose the fact that this album does feel a bit derivative will probably keep it from being as appealing as it could to some people. I love this album anyway, so I don't really care; Sarin has more than proven themselves to me what they're capable of. Great, great stuff.

Rosetta – Flies to Flame

October 14, 2014 • Translation Loss Records

If, like me, you've been following Rosetta's trajectory for the last almost-ten years since I first heard The Galilean Satellites, then I barely need to talk much about their last release on Translation Loss, Flies to Flame. Let me state off the bat: Yes, Rosetta is still a good band; yes, I still enjoy their music; yes, this EP is still good; yes, I bought the record. (Gotta have that green vinyl.) But since they are one of my top-favorites it's too easy to judge new material harshly, like I did with The Anaesthete, and it's tough to judge releases like this.

With that in mind: Every time I've listened to this EP, all I can think is "yep, just more Rosetta songs." And that's just what they are: the slow chord progressions, walls of echoing guitar washing off every surface, drumming that just can't go without filling every eighth note with something. I mean, yes, obviously I like it. But they've got thirty other songs that sound just like it! (The guitar-drone-only "Seven Years..." is a bit unique for the band as far as I can tell, for what it's worth.)

The EP does have a very soft sound, though, especially compared to the metal juggernaut that The Anaesthete was—seriously, listen to these back-to-back; it's like getting punched. So for anyone who does dig Rosetta when they're a bit more quiet and introspective is going to enjoy this. I won't say it's my favorite of their styles, but they are still quite good at it.

But I have to say I'm still excited for the band. They've got that new documentary out (hopefully there'll be a piece on that here soon), and self-funding seems to be working out well so far, so it'll be neat to find out where things go from here. Flies to Flame is a fitting goodbye to their old label and their old ways; let's just see what comes next.

Fleshworld / Gazers / Viscera/// – Split

October 14, 2014 • Unquiet Records

Reviewing promotional split albums always feels a bit weird, but sometimes the material really is good enough that I have to share it. Today's edition is three metal bands from all over Europe: Fleshworld from Poland, Gazers from France, and Viscera/// (slashes included, please) from Italy.

Fleshworld gets the split off to a great start—I'm really enjoying their tracks. Their style of sludge metal manages to be both a little atmospheric and very driving at the same time, a bit Cult-of-Luna-esque without as much grandeur. The rhythmic patterns going on here are great—the hard-hitting drum grooves are especially irresistible, and there are lots of really nice crunchy guitar lines holding it together. They occasionally launch into some more intense punkish-blastbeating, quiet clean bridges (naturally), and even a little bit of psychedelic noodling, which are all nice enough—but man am I digging the standard sludge. I haven't heard many new bands lately doing it as well as they do. I only wish the first two songs were a little longer, as the nine-minute "Rezygnacja" is, to give me a bit more to sink my teeth into.

Gazers sounds nothing like their name implies—this is some raw and harsh screamo, chaotic riffing, blasting, some slower chugging sections, the occasional breakdown, and all. Maybe it's that Fleshworld is a hard act to follow but I'm not as thrilled about this band—though they are still pretty decent. The songwriting is a bit disjointed and hard to follow at times, but they definitely have the texture and mood down well. Admittedly I've never been a huge fan of this style of post-hardcore/screamo so I'm probably not the right person to take Gazers on, but you could certainly do a lot worse.

Viscera/// brings us back around to the sludge metal side of things, but in a much different way from Fleshworld. The promo kit calls them "psychedelic" but I don't think I'd agree whatsoever; they're definitely way too clean and heavy for that (blastbeating isn't psychedelic, and flanger pedals don't automatically make you so, no matter what anyone says). But they do have nice big riffs aplenty, and bigger riffs you rarely have seen. Their style is all over the place, though—they swerve from crunching rhythmic lines to almost-black-metal tremolo blasting to upbeat stoner metal, and it's a bit weird. The poppy clean singing in "Nobody's Diary" feels wildly out of place and the band can get a bit too repetitive at times, but the majority of what they've put down here is pretty great.

In short—one split, plenty of great brutality to be had, and I'm off to see if there's any more from these bands to check out, because my interest is definitely piqued.

Keeper – MMXIV

July 5, 2014 • PlasticSkull Records

Keeper delivers some excruciating, pounding doom metal that's some of the filthiest I've heard. The grimy distortion on downtuned-to-hell guitars (that low bass string must not even be remotely taut at this point), sputtering vocals, and echoing production make the album almost uncomfortable to listen to—although that's kind of a good thing in this case.

The songs are all quite long and sprawling without a whole lot of real structure to them, so the music can be a bit hard to follow, especially in the slower parts. It's not my preferred way to do doom; I like having some organization and clarity to the songwriting, but MMXIV goes off in all sorts of directions, losing me easily. Sometimes, when things pick up speed, it's not quite so bad and I can get into the rhythmic grooving they do in some parts, like "Perception/Prescription".

On the whole, it's really not a bad album. It's not something I'll put on often, as I simply don't get into doom much and this album doesn't do it quite to my tastes anyway. But I still feel like there's something worth looking into here, at least for established doom fans.

As We Draw – Mirages

October 4, 2014 • Throatruiner Records

Compared to Lines Breaking Circles, not a whole lot has changed except that the band has somehow gotten a lot better. Thought nothing much has changed since their debut, something about it really grabbed me and I think it may be one of 2014's finest so far.

Mirages basically comes in two flavors: long atmospheric sludgy tracks, and shorter Converge-esque chaotic hardcore / mathcore ones—and there's definitely something to be said for both. The longer tracks (basically just "The Window" and "Shipwreck") have this great post-rock-influenced buildup structure that works really great with the heavier guitar sound without being too clichéd. The shorter tracks are almost perfect: full of blistering energy, stabbing guitar lines and crashing drumming, and never overstaying their welcome. They're angry as hell, but they don't get too wrapped up in it that they lose sight of the song structure.

I don't know for sure why this one is hooking me a lot more than their first—maybe it's my mood, maybe somehow my taste for this stuff has grown—but I can't discount the fact that this music just grooves hard and in a way that I am really enjoying. It's not an album that I'll be able to listen to often—it's a little too punishing at times and the whole thing can be a bit draining. But when I do get the urge, it satisfies handily.

Torche, Broughton's Rules, Maranatha

September 23, 2014 • Ace of Cups, Columbus, Ohio

Finally! It feels like ages since the last concert I went to (okay it was only July, but still). Back at good old Ace of Cups, where everything is always amazing.

Maranatha

A local band who I'd never heard of but they instantly impressed me. They are a really heavy style of sludgecore, with some brutal dropped-tuning chugging, some hardcore rhythms, and even a little bit of death metal sprinkled in here and there. Definitely one of the best examples of the genre I've witnessed so far—I won't say they quite touch Struck by Lightning (not that they're trying to), but they were still impressive enough for me to pick up their EP (which is free to download by the way). Cool dudes, cool show.

Broughton's Rules

I'd never heard of this band either, but one of the guitarists used to be in Don Caballero, so they oughta be good, right? Nah, not really. They were this kind of odd psychedelic instrumental post-metal thing, with lots of jamming on a single section with lots of dissonant noisy guitar bits and the occasional heavy riff. There is a bit of promising material buried somewhere in there, but the rocking out never lasted very long and they spent more time goofing around with the awful noise than actually playing. They weren't bad, but they definitely weren't the kind of band I'd seek out or ever listen to again.

Torche

I've already written plenty about Torche, including a live show two years ago, their last album, and various Floor stuff. So it should be no surprise that I was psyched to see them again and that I had an excellent time—they were easily better than when I saw them supporting Converge in 2012. I suppose that's partly because I've had more time to get to know Harmonicraft, so everything they played was familiar to me. But they also simply just put on a damn good show. It always warms my cold heart to see Steve Brooks dancing around in a very silly manner when starting off a song. You can tell they were all still so happy to be there and play. Absolutely worth checking out whenever they're around.

Deterior – Human Dust

August 26, 2014 • GarageMonkey Productions

Deterior is one of few bands that definitively gets better with each album, as long as you can get used to the somewhat drastic stylistic change that happened over the last seven years. This is more of the same black-sludge combo as in Torchbearer but not quite as drawn-out.

And it's free to stream and download, so yeah, check it out.

Reproacher – Nothing to Save

June 11, 2013 • self-released

Gotta have more of that delicious modern sludgecore? Reproacher delivers. These guys are among the filthiest and heaviest bands of their genre—detuned guitars, pounding rhythms, grimy production, and man are they angry as all hell. They lean a bit into the hardcore punk side at times, so when the band isn't bringing some crushing doom they're pretty fast and jumpy, but it's always suitably heavy and they never feel out-of-control. Although Reproacher aren't really bringing anything particularly new to the table just yet, they're certainly good at what they do. A band to keep an eye on.

Floor – Oblation

April 25, 2014 • Season of Mist

Not much has changed for Floor since their breakup ten years ago, and you could say that's both a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand, their signature melodic-doom style is still as crushing and majestic as it's ever been and they're still quite fun to listen to. On the other hand, there's nothing new going on at all here—nothing that we haven't heard on other Floor or Torche albums.

In fact it wouldn't be inappropriate to think of Oblation as just "the next Torche album". You have a lot of the faster-tempo almost-stoner-rock-like songs that wouldn't be out of place on Harmonicraft combined with the low grinding chug-a-thon of Floor's older material. They are still making liberal use of their ultra-detuned guitars for those sweet distorted bass drops or whatever they are, so that's good to hear.

But none of the songs really stand out to me as being particularly interesting or exceptionally well-written or catchy or memorable. The riffs mostly seem like a kind of jumbled mess of notes that technically go together but aren't organized in any meaningful way. The album just kind of flies by with nothing to say as it goes.

I'm not saying it's bad; I like listening to it on some level and don't find myself wanting to shut it off or anything like that. It's just that it's probably best relegated to background music because there's not really a lot worth paying attention to. Stick with their well-established classic albums (Meanderthal and Floor). But, if you get a chance to check them out live (as I did last year), that is definitely worth it.

N. Tesla – Lux Manifesto

February 20, 2014 • Lost Memories Records

I don't really listen to a lot of Russian metal—it's often either hard to find or not very good. But it's even better when a band recommends themselves to you and then turn out to be really good. And it's even better when they turn out to be really good, as was the case with this album.

N. Tesla is firmly in the classic atmospheric sludge camp (points from me right off the bat), with a sound that wouldn't sound out of place last decade but still doesn't sound dated. The riffs are the sort that are very archetypal for sludge simple—just a few notes, steadfastly chugging along, nothing too technical apart from some great stop-start rhythms—but still manage to be crushingly heavy. I guess simplicity really can be the best thing, when you can do it this effectively. There are also plenty of softer bridges with clean guitars that do a great job of breaking up the music and keep the songs progressing. I get a bit of a Swallow the Ocean or Seven Nautical Miles vibe, which is great as that is still one of my favorite kinds of sludge (too bad they didn't keep up the maritime theme; oh well).

The band definitely brings their own unique flair to the music, though, and they do plenty to shake up the standard. They manage to get a little psychedelic at times with some interesting guitar layering and effects, culminating in the freak-out noise interlude that is "Megalodon". There's even a bit of interesting folk influence, at least in some of the intermediate sections like the first track, along with this neat little jazzy section in "Determination of Giants". Despite it sounding a bit weird written down, it all fuses up and works together very well. These guys really know what they're doing, and they're doing an excellent job at it.

It's not often I say this, but I'm having a really tough time thinking of anything about Lux Manifesto I don't like. If anything, the riff style maybe gets a tiny bit repetitive about two-thirds in, but though some might have a problem with it, I certainly don't; there's definitely enough of other styles on here to keep me listening. It's as if they knew exactly what I like in my sludge metal and tailored this album just to my tastes. Fantastic stuff, and definitely a band I'm going to keep an eye on.

Serpent Eater – Hyena

December 2013 • Alerta Antifascista

I think the sludgecore movement is slowly becoming one of my favorite things to happen to metal—a basis in dirty, heavy sludge metal, with extra speed and hardcore punk influence. Serpent Eater adds a healthy dose of grind, stoner, and black metal influence thrown in; not unusual, so it seems, but these guys layer in just about every extreme metal style they can think of on Hyena. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it sure does make for a unique and interesting experience.

For sure it's some of the most intense, heavy, and pounding music in its genre that I've heard—if the band isn't chugging along at a driving pace, it's spazzing out with skittering, chaotic drums and buzzsaw riffs. And boy, are there riffs—probably more riffs than they know what to do with; the songs are chock-full of interesting things for the band to do and they switch up rhythms and feel quite a bit, so things stay pretty fresh and there's a lot to hear just over the course of a single song.

And, of course, with so much going on that does leave the songs a bit difficult to follow sometimes, leaving the individual songs a bit less memorable than those of similar bands (unless that just means I haven't listened to this album enough yet, which is possible). But bits and pieces that manage to stick out make up for that, like one of "Last Cold World"'s ending riffs which has a great rhythmic pattern you just want to fist-pump along to.

I don't think these guys are going to make any top-sludgecore-albums lists I make in the near future, but Hyena is definitely worth listening to once you're worn out your Struck by Lightning records. Hopefully they keep it up, and maybe with a little bit more focus and honed songwriting we'll see something truly great from them in the future.

Indian – From All Purity

January 21, 2014 • Relapse Records

I haven't been as into sludge lately, as a lot of the stuff I've been finding over the last few years just doesn't appeal to me as much as it used to. But every once in a while I still find something phenomenal and worth commenting on. Lately it's been Indian's From All Purity, something quite different and fascinating.

Though when I call this sludge metal, that doesn't really paint the whole picture. This album is some of the most raw and abrasive sludge metal I've heard in a while—and I don't really mean that in a mixing / production sense; what I mean is that this music is goddamn furious. It doesn't just attack the listener; it sounds like it's trying to beat the listener's head into the sidewalk over and over, screaming all the way. I'm no masochist, but here it's something I can really get into.

And Indian is really good at it; when I listen to this album, I don't really hear songs: I just hear unbridled fury as dictated through tortured vocals, doomy guitar slams, and pounding drums. Sometimes I don't even notice when they slide into the pure noise track "Clarify", since its harshness fits in with the other music. The whole thing is oddly cathartic. I suppose that's why I enjoy it so much. It's especially odd since I usually dislike slow, plodding, seemingly-aimless doomy stuff, but here it is perfect.

It's still early, but From All Purity is shaping up to fall among the top sludge albums of this year. If you can handle the abuse, highly recommended.

Thou – Ceremonies of Humiliation

January 29, 2014 • Dead Tank Records

Is this really the same Thou that released the great album Summit? Because I really couldn't believe it at first; I thought this must have been a different band. This is because Ceremonies of Humiliation is simply a disaster.

Let's be clear, though: this isn't a regular album; this is (if I understand correctly) a compilation of tracks from various past splits and EPs from before Summit's release. So you can't really approach it in the same way you would a standard album, and it's all older material anyway.

Even putting that aside, I didn't enjoy a single minute of Ceremonies of Humiliation. Thou plays a very doom- and stoner-infused sludge metal: drawling, plodding, dark, and heavy. It's not my favorite kind of sludge, but the songs simply aren't good anyway. It just feels like there's no reason behind the song structures and the band just flounders around on weak riff after weak riff, going nowhere. Nowhere are the dynamics and interesting compositions I expected—just and endless string of notes and an insatiable desire to try to be "heavy" that they never really reach in a satisfying way. I think there's a point somewhere right between sludge metal and stoner metal that I inherently despise for some reason, and almost all of these songs hit that point on the nose.

And, by the way, this all goes on for an hour and a half. A full eighty-eight minutes, almost every one of them torturous. Normally I listen to any given release a handful of times before reviewing; I couldn't get through a second one with this.

Just stick to Summit (I checked; it's still a good album) and forget this thing ever existed.

Yautja – Songs of Descent

February 11, 2014 • self-released

Another random Bandcamp find; unfortunately I don't have a lot of background knowledge of Yautja, but I will say that going by this album, these guys are absolutely stellar.

Songs of Descent falls nicely into a bucket I like to call "sludgecore" (see Struck by Lightning and some KEN Mode), a combinations of dirty, heavy, chugging sludge with some of the faster technical elements of metalcore and modern hardcore—even a bit of grindcore, too, at least here. I haven't found many spectacular examples of this genre in action, but Yautja has definitely caught my ear. These are the kinds of riffs that really dig in under your skin—vile and nasty stuff but catchy and satisfying at the same time, and Yautja brings them non-stop and in full force.

The songs blast by quickly and there's a lot to process in a short time—fourteen tracks in less than forty minutes is lightning speed, especially with some of them being just a minute long. And they do a lot with the short time they have, going from Mastodon to Rotten Sound in seconds. It's a really interesting experience, one that demands attention from the listener as they never let what they're doing get repetitive or stale.

The one nitpicky thing I can think of is that the vocals are always pushed way far back in the mix (unless it's just my headphones?) that they often might as well not even be there. I think a better vocal presence could really push this band even farther. The rest of the band sounds great, though, and the mixing is otherwise very well-done.

Again, definitely worth giving a full listen. I definitely hope to hear more from Yautja soon.

Junius, A Storm of Light, Mockingbird

February 26, 2014 • Kobo Live, Columbus, Ohio

The number live shows I've been going to has been a bit disappointingly smaller than usual in the last few months. But I'm never opposed to going to a show where I've already seen the majority of the bands before (if I know they're good, anyway).

Mockingbird

I've seen these guys before and I was more than happy to see them again; they put on a great show. This time was definitely better than the first, as well. I think that since then they must have gotten some new songs written and, if so, they are a sure step up from what they played last year. It's a very heavy and headbangin' doom-sludge hybrid with fantastic riffing. Still some bad mic technique, but that's okay. Good technical playing all around, too, especially with bass and drums. I don't know how much they get around, since they're from Akron and I guess still a bit "local", but they're totally worth checking out.
7 • Still the Best Mutton Chops Award

A Storm of Light

I've only heard a couple of this band's songs before so my expectations of how this set was going to go were a little off. Despite the fact that this band's frontman has been in at least three other bands I'm a fan of (Red Sparowes, Battle of Mice, and Neurosis), and that I really wanted to like them, I just couldn't get into this show at all. They play a kind of alt-sludge style with a nice, heavy, powerful sound, but the riffs and songwriting just seemed a bit boring to me. Neat visuals on the projector, though; that did add to the show in an interesting way.
5 • Most Pedals (Like Seriously, Your Bassist Does Not Need Ten) Award

Junius

Like Mockingbird, I think Junius has gotten even better since the first time I saw them. They've put out quite a bit of new material since then, and the new stuff is really quite good. They're still harping their melodic-atmospheric-post-rock-metal-Khoma-Rosetta style, which of course is great, but there are a few songs that really rock out in a unique way. I really need to check out their latest album and EP at some point. Although, I have to say that the use of incredibly bright audience-facing lights is, while neat, really annoying for anyone standing near the front. Probably contributed to half of my headache.
9 • Still Very Fine Beards Award

Bonus: I noticed someone taping the first two sets; if I ever find them up on YouTube I might post them here as well.

Alaskan – Despair, Erosion, Loss

January 19, 2014 • Moment of Collapse Records

I'm happy that Alaskan seems to be doing well lately. I've been following them pretty much since they started out, and have yet to hear anything by them I didn't really like. If you've heard their last album Adversity; Woe, it's more or less the same as what you're getting here, and I can't say I'm at all disappointed.

Here on Despair, Erosion, Loss the band is still treading the same grounds as on their last album. Dirty, doomy sludge metal, long gloomy buildups, and a somewhat impenetrable sound. They seem to be upping the intensity on this album a bit, though. The songs seem a bit faster and more frantic than they used to be. Heavy pounding sections, technical riffing, and almost-black-metal blastbeats aren't too uncommon here. It's still a modern sludge record at heart, though, with post-hardcore influences seamlessly integrated, as has been the trend lately. It's worked well for them before, and it works well again.

However, also as with their last album, while I like their sound and aesthetic, the songwriting still doesn't grab me. There are some good, even catchy riffs and memorable parts scattered around, but not a lot that fuses into a cohesive whole. I feel like they're almost trying to do too many things at once and it's hard to really gel with what's going on. Maybe that's just me, though.

Still, I can't say this is a bad album—not by a long shot. At the very least, it's great for background music and there's still a lot to be gained from more attentive listening. I've been a bit disillusioned with a lot of the sludge metal that's come out in the last year or so and it's good to know there are still some bands making stuff I enjoy. And I hope they stick around and crank a few more albums out.

(pst this one's free too)

KEN Mode – Entrench

March 15, 2013 • Season of Mist

I guess I'm kind of obligated to review this album now, having enjoyed Venerable and seeing this band play twice in the last year. I don't mind, though; KEN mode hasn't let up on quality and Entrench is a pretty darn awesome album.

They're back with the same sort of frantic-metalcore-meets-sludge sound ("sludgecore" isn't a thing yet, no matter how hard I try), though the noise rock aspects have been toned down for a more post-hardcore-oriented approach. Like before, the band is heavy and gritty as hell but the occasional softer moment; the pounding rarely lets up throughout the album but it does switch a bit from fast-paced punk-tinged sludgecore to some slower doomier stuff and an almost alt/post-rock like buildup on "Romeo Must Never Know". There are still a lot of surprisingly catchy moments as well without suffering from breakdown overload ("The Promises of God" is especially great in this regard), while at the same time the technicality of the performance has been dialed back a bit in favor of just rocking out. And that's great.

I could probably go as far as to say that I'm liking this more than Venerable right off the bat. I can't really think of anything they didn't do just right. Absolutely a great and worthy followup (yeah at some point I really should check out their first three albums...) and definitely recommended to anyone who's a fan of sludgecore in general.

Adai – Felo De Se

May 2010 • Cavity Records

Just another random find (this time courtesy of Spotify, but I'll take what I can get—they're surprisingly good at recommendations, I've found). It's rare that you see atmospheric sludge bands with tracks less than six minutes long, so I was curious about this band, and it turns out they're quite good, although the lack of material is a bit disappointing.

They have a great sound, though, kind of like a dirtier, heavier Pelican, with the same sort of stoner-influenced major-key riffs and sprawling instrumental sound. Although it does stand up pretty well as it is now, I think it would definitely be improved with more / better vocals; the music tends to drag on a little bit without them, and the bits that do exist aren't that great (they're mostly in the background and aren't terribly great, to be honest). But the music itself is very well-written and manages to be pretty interesting, if a little samey.

Although they may not sound particularly original, Adai has a really great sound and this EP is so short that it just breezes by and leaves me wanting more. I really hope they pull together a full-length sometime soon (it's been over three years already!). I guess I'll have to settle for this.

6