Album Type: EP
Date Released:
26/01/2018
Label: Gizeh Records
For fans of expansive, unhurried post-metal that explores both
softness and bleakness, Hundred Year Old Man serve up a three track taster that
will whet the appetite. This is an
atmospheric and well executed record that will have fans hungry for their debut
full-length to come later this year.
“Rei” LP/DD track listing
1). Sun & Moon (6:26)
2). A Year In The North Sea
(2:34)
3). Rei (9:00)
The Review:
Some
people would scoff at the idea of ordering an appetiser as a standalone meal.
Surely a starter can only ever act as a warm up for a larger dish, something to
take the edge off a yawning hunger before fully satiating it with the main
course. For some, Leeds based post-metal
sextet Hundred
Year Old Man have provided just this with their three track ‘Rei’ EP. But for the more discerning
audio gourmand, ‘Rei’ can be fully
digested and appreciated as a stand-alone release.
Opener ‘Sun & Moon’ begins slowly, distant
guitar fading in like an intensifying ethereal wind as samples echo and
shimmer. Densely reverbed drums begin a slow, stately report as droning chords
grind in like stone moving on stone. The wearied pace continues as Paul
Broughton’s crowing vocals erupt, before the track fades into mere guitar motes
and sibilant cymbals. Reigned back in by a plodding bass undertow, things bloom
out into a thick haze of instrumentation, smooth as silk.
‘A Year In The North Sea’ is a
caesura of sorts, a building wall of noise and sumptuous choral vocals that
warp and twist, buffeted by rising guitar feedback and distant shrieks, ending
in a thicket of birdcall based noise.
The title
track itself jams in with tolling, brooding bass and lances of guitar,
expanding to fill a vast space, winding and lurching towards a heavy, doom
centric riff. They slowly revolve around this theme, instruments dropping in
and out, vocals echoing into the distance, building dread before the track ends
abruptly, forming into a screeching noise scape and then a creaking synth loop.
For fans
of expansive, unhurried post-metal that explores both softness and bleakness, Hundred Year
Old Man serve up a three track taster that will whet the appetite.
Despite a slightly ropey mix leaving ‘Sun
& Moon’ a little too vocal heavy and that shuns the traditional
heavy/light dynamics integral to true post metal effectiveness in favour of
embracing sprawling expanse, this is an atmospheric and well executed record
that will have fans hungry for their debut full-length to come later this year.
“Rei” is available here
