Album Type: Mini Album
Date Released: 01/07/2016
Label: Holy Roar Records
Captivating from start to finish, you will struggle to find a
release this year that pertains such a crushing sound. Their heaviness seems to
come out of your speakers and wrap itself around you. It tightens your chest
and grips you, like a boa constrictor.
“I” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). Behold the Swine
2). Scorn
3). A Chasm Forged In Dread
And Disarray
4). Frail
The Review:
Until now, Birmingham
Describing
the band’s “tumultuous, labyrinth metal,” the official press release states
that their sound “draws upon Opeth
at their heaviest, Mastodon at their earliest, Neurosis
at their most blunt and Gojira at their most venomous.” Now, oftentimes
these paragraphs sent to us music writers are laced with overblown hyperbole
and frankly silly superlatives, but in this instance it paints a true to life
picture of how this furious mini-album plays out. Any over excitement on the
labels behalf is completely and utterly justified.
Paranoid
broken chords cascade from the darkness that enshrouds this release on opener ‘Behold The Swine’ before the drop,
monstrous in its presence, stomps into your periphery, hinged on demonic,
gargled vocals and artistically crafted atmospheric guitar work that has
vengeance in mind and post-metal in its heart. Dynamics rise and fall like the
lapping of ocean waves, calm interweaving through their storms in the form of
chordal quiescence and lucid soundscapes. It all transpires to keep you
transfixed. In the guise of a beguilingly savage doom metal thump and a
progressive thinking, they exhibit all the factors that their reputation has
been built upon. Holy Roar Records have snatched up a monster.
Discordant
battery is the name of the game on ‘Scorn’,
early Mastodonian
savagery, the bruises they wear with pride across a song that never relents.
Musically speaking, the song is swarming with jarring notes and an uneasy mood,
but it is a feeding ground purposefully and tactfully created and on which,
they prey and wreak havoc. Melody is barren here, but there is something else
nestling in its place which embodies a strong sense of character, making this
more than just a heavy as hell composition.
As
‘I’ progresses, they begin to sew
each track together like a dead skin mask. ‘A Chasm Forged In Dread and Dissarray’ snakes out of feedback and
exploding cymbals with a Gojira
influenced bite. Rapid fire tremolo picking gives the song a potent atmosphere
and Dan Nightingale’s growled vocals sounding mighty at the summit of the mix.
Their adventurist songwriting drags you down a path full of clever,
awe-inspiring riffs and coveted nuances, while the trudging pace of ‘Frail’ would not sound out of place on Neurosis’
‘Times Of Grace’.
Captivating
from start to finish, you will struggle to find a release this year, especially
one coming from an artist as relatively young as this, that pertains such a
crushing sound. Their heaviness seems to come out of your speakers and wrap
itself around you. It tightens your chest and grips you, boa constrictor like.
Any moments of mercy, where you find yourself frantically gasping for air, are teasingly
short lived. It’s as if the band has managed to personify their sound and,
every time you hit play, you awaken a beast that thrives off your pain and
misery. The twist in the tale, however, is that you too will thrive,
sadistically, off its murderous intent.
