Sloths - Twenty Years EP (Review)

Album Type: EP

Date Released: Out Now

Label: TGIS, DLLMR, Illuminasty Records

‘Twenty Years’ DD/LP  track listing:

1). Elegy 2:42

2). Void 4:08

3). Passing 6:04

The Band:

Alec | Bass

Nate | Drums & Vocals

Kyle | Guitars & Vocals

Bio:

SLOTHS, from Portland Oregon, play music that is dark, fast, noisy and enveloping. Dynamically created by three musicians, SLOTHS songs are simultaneously expansive, exacting and emotionally charged. The guitars skirt from nihilistic noise to haunted bouts of swirling melody while spazzy drums flail from blast beats to d beats to cymbal-destroying grooves; the music is anchored by sludge laden, riff focused bass playing and accented by shredded throat vocals. Formed in late 2010 with the goal of creating heavy music without boundaries, SLOTHS have released a demo and two EPs the later of which, “Knives” was released on Vinyl via Black Lake Records, Don’t Live Like Me Records, Loaded Sound Records, and Hash Crimes.  They have extensively toured the west coast as well as covering the majority of the US in August 2013.

           

 Their new EP, “Twenty Years” is a trio of songs recorded with Fester at Haywire Studios (Nux Vomica, Honduran) and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Baptists, Sleep, Oathbreaker, Tragedy). It is a split release between The Ghost Is Clear Records, Don’t Live Like Me Records, and Illuminasty Records. The songs are connected musically and thematically with recurring melodies that are altered by their sonic surroundings and lyrics that examine what it means to die young. The lyrics are influenced by the recent death of a friend and the perspective gained by seeing the aftermath of such a tragedy. The music maneuvers through a range of tones and moods, all colored by the bleak subject matter yet accented by a flickering lightness that hints at acceptance while serving to render its surroundings in even darker shades. SLOTHS will be bringing this material on the road during a West Coast/Midwest tour this September.​

Review:

Sloths… an appropriate name for a doom band. One of those bands with 15 minute long songs that play 6 chords a minute through fuzzed out old tube amps, a band you could find almost relaxing in its heaviness. One that will make you sit back and think about weed, hatred, HP Lovecraft. We all know the countless bands like this (and love the hell out of them), but in this case Sloths has deceived us with their name.

Sloths is certainly not a band of Sloths. Instead, they seems to me like a band of pissed off killers channeling all their weird rage into this badass EP, to make for a brutal, aggressive, interesting bit of music. They keep their tempo anything but Sloth like, always changing it up and never getting boring or repetitive. At no point in this album is there filler, or any nonessential material. And while I’m at it, not only is their band name a lie, but the album name is a lie, too! The three songs on this album clock in at just under 13 minutes total. However, if you listen to it like I did, on repeat; it might as well be ‘20 years’ because it’s a very hard album to turn off. These motherfuckers really know how to combine anger, riffs and atmosphere into some very compact bits of music.

I have nothing against long, repetitive, slow doom. It’s some of my favorite genres of music in the world, but I’m also always happy to hear a band with doomy, sludgey elements like this that do their own thing and don’t fall into any specific category. They slow it down when the song demands it, they speed it up when the song demands it. They end the song when it should end and they don’t add in any extraneous bits. They even bring in the blast beats a few times… a very nice touch when used well, and they sure do use it well. They also add in plenty of cleaner breakdowns with melodic, melancholy chords to add some more variety, while still keeping one cohesive sound.

I haven’t listened to any of their previous albums, but you can be sure I’ll be going after them now. These guys seem to be the epitome of a good ol’ no nonsense, heavy duty power trio with a good handle on what they want to do with their music. Granted, they probably won’t “shatter your illusion of music” or change your life, but if you want to just sit back and listen to some genuine metal with no bullshit, this is a good album to reach for.

Words by: Alex D.

You can pick up the DD as a ‘pay what you like’ here

Limited vinyl is available here

For more information:

www.facebook.com/slothsportland

www.sloths.bandcamp.com

www.slothsportland.tumblr.com

Somali Yacht Club - The Sun (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 16/9/2014

Label: Robustfellow / Transubstans Records

‘The Sun’ CD/DD/LP track Listing

1). The Loom (08:20)

2). Sightwaster (08:02)

3). Up In The Sky (08:12)

4). Signals (10:52)

5). Sun (7:19)

Bio:

Somali Yacht Club is a stoner rock trio from Lviv, Ukraine. The band mixes elements of stoner rock, psychedelic rock, shoegazing and post-metal in their music.

Formed in 2010 as a jam band, they evolved quickly to a main band for its members. In August 2011 they self-released their first four-song EP “Sandsongs”.

In late 2014 Somali Yacht Club are releasing first LP ‘The Sun’ on Bilocation Records. They played numerous shows in Ukraine and shared the stage with Red Fand, The Machine, Stoned Jesus, Belzebong, Bong and many others.

The Band:

Mez | Guitar, vocals
Artur | bass
Lesyk | drums

Review:

Somali Yacht Club definitely were able to make an interesting genre mash-up with their newest full length, ‘The Sun’. Until this point all they had out there was their debut EP, ‘Sandsongs’ from 2011 and a single they put out last year. As a fan of both those releases, this newest one was certainly a surprise. While their earlier albums were very riff laden, fuzzed out, to the point stoner metal, ‘The Sun’ is a much more abstract piece of work. The goal of this clearly is different from their earlier releases- it’s about half as heavy, half the speed, but with twice the amount of thought put into how the album would work as a whole.

After listening to the first track, I thought I had about settled into the album. It seemed like one of those openers that would define the whole album. That nice, atmospheric opening track prepares the listener for a contemplative, almost relaxing experience. The main riff is catchy, but not too in your face. There is a lot of background noise throughout the whole song, a lot of effects, and those great trippy vocals chanting “I can feel it in my bones” over and over.

The fact that Somali Yacht Club started as a jam band becomes very evident by the second and third tracks. This is where they start to go all over- you can tell that a lot of this was written just during a straight up jam session- riffs that came right from the heart without an excessive amount of thought put into them, and even some dub sections. However, it also avoids being incohesive as a lot of jam bands can be- it is still a very well arranged album that flows throughout.

They definitely took a risk with this album- there are so many points in the album that they could have easily just taken the easy route (which they may have done on their first EP) and just gone from one to another, keeping the same attitude the whole song, but ‘The Sun’ has a multitude of attitudes and emotions going on.  ‘The Sun' manages to find the perfect middle ground of psychedelic rock. Just the right amount of riffs, right amount of abstract atmospheric jamming, the vocals are relaxing, but intense and emotional at the same time. There is so much emotion on this album that I feel like you could listen to it in any mood and relate to it. They manage to be all over the place, but still not sound frantic and unorganized.

All-in-all, a great, well put together album. Go spend the 5 bucks and get it on Bandcamp.

Words by: Alex D.

You can pick up a copy here and here

For more information:

https://somaliyachtclub.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Somaliyachtclub