By: Richard Maw
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 28/09/2018
Label: Translation Loss
For listeners prepared to take this grim journey,
there are impressive rewards to be had. Not for the faint hearted, but
certainly this album is one of the best releases this year in doom or any other
genre. The whole album is a grim steed, plodding inexorably towards its own
fate. Fantastic.
“Sentiment” CD//DD//2LP
track listing:
1). In Its Absence
2). Pools of Reflection
3). Sentiment
4). A Garden Where Nothing Grows
The Review
Well,
there are four tracks here, nothing much under twelve minutes in length and
there has been a sizeable buzz surrounding this record for many weeks prior to
me sitting down to review. So what is going on with Un's “Sentiment” album- their
sophomore release?!
For
starters, melancholic clean work opens up and then gives way to a truly huge
and crushing passage of music. Obviously, from the song lengths alone, it is
reasonable to assume that this is an album that is in the arena of the doom
genre- and it is, loosely. This is nothing really like Sabbath, Vitus, Trouble, Candlemass et al- it is not trad
doom by any stretch. It does fit into the more modern interpretation of the
genre label- think Conan, Yob and so on.
The
vocals are of the growled variety (not on every track though, so keep an ear
out!), the sound is absolutely enormous and the mix is excellent. This is very,
very weighty stuff indeed and by the time opener “In Its Absence” has finished, the tone has been set. There is nothing
uplifting here: only the darkest and murkiest riffs and sounds are to be found
here. It's a downbeat listen, as song titles such as “Pools of Reflection” suggest. The title track is just as sprawling
and epic in approach and utilises the same clean opening (yielding a promise of
something sweeter than the bitterest of fruit which is actually then served
up).
There
are echoes of Paradise
Lost at their gloomiest, echoes of Yob at their trippiest and there
are hints of death metal, psychedelia and even shoe-gaze here and there. The
closing statement of “A Garden Where
Nothing Grows” is a dark and bleak vision and it really sums up the whole
record very well. Any track here would sum up the release as a whole as it is a
very strong whole and is nothing if not consistent.
Yep,
“Sentiment”
fits into the doom bracket, but there is a great deal going on here. For
listeners prepared to take this grim journey, there are impressive rewards to
be had. Not for the faint hearted, but certainly this album is one of the best
releases this year in doom or any other genre. The whole album is a grim steed,
plodding inexorably towards its own fate. Fantastic.
“Sentiment” is available HERE
Band
info: bandcamp || facebook
