ALBUM REVIEW: Make - "Pilgrimage of Loathing"

By: George Parr

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 15/07/2016
Label: Accident Prone Records

An encompassing album that sees Make drag the psychedelia and post-metal of their previous recordings into a sludgy realm full of menacing atmospherics and hard-hitting riffs, Pilgrimage Of Hate is sure to please those who like their doom dark and heavy, but less predictable than the average group.

“Pilgrimage of Loathing” track listing:

1). The Somnambulist

2). Birthed Into A Grave They Made for You

3). Two Hawks Fucking

4). Human Garbage

5). Dirt

6). Nothing

The Review

Breaking out of metals overpopulated underground with previous release “The Golden Veil”, North Carolina’s Make are ready to turn even more heads just a year later with what will be the group’s second full-length since reforming in 2015. Evolving significantly since “The Golden Veil”, which was in any regard a great post-metal album with elements of doom-soaked psychedelia, “Pilgrimage of Loathing” sees Make more substantially embrace the gloomy world of sludge.

Immediately more dark and sombre than the group’s previous material, it is an album drenched in a layer of thick grime that makes every guttural yell and hazy riff even more bruising. That’s not to say Make are a one-trick pony, however, as the more sinister and atmospheric ‘Two Hawks Fucking’ or the post-rock tinkerings of closer ‘Nothing’ will testify. Most impressive, though, is The Stooges cover ‘Dirt’, a filthy rendition of the Iggy Pop and co track that re-appropriates the original’s infectious bass-lines to create heavy, Sleep-esque grooves that are ominously overlapped by a juxtaposition of gritty vocals and soaring cult-like singing.

In many ways, “Pilgrimage of Loathing” is more straight-forward than Make’s previous releases, with its raw, acidic nature providing a more in-your-face level of mean heaviness. However, don’t mistake this as a run-of-the-mill sludge release, as the intricacies of Make’s previous recordings remain present. Blackened doom riffs frequently dominate proceedings, but swirling psychedelic undertones are an occasional source of transcendent wonder, whilst injections of post metal elements allow Make’s often weighty sound to soar now and then, rather than stay confined to its murky home.

Whilst some will see “Pilgrimage of Loathing” as a huge shift in musical direction that all but completely abandons the meditative sound Make’s previous releases were built upon, the alteration into a darker, more melancholic band has undoubtedly yielded a hugely positive result. Whether accidentally or otherwise, the psychedelic post-metal we heard on “The Golden Veil” just one year ago has been buried, but not silenced, under a layer of muscular, blackened sludge metal, inadvertently making Make one of the doom scene’s most exciting and unique bands.

“Pilgrimage of Loathing” is available here

Band info: facebook