Labels: Trepanner Headmusic Company
Review by: Alex Deller
Nine tracks of complicated, heavy rock from these four Scots. There’s a lot going on here and it isn’t very easy to categorise, which is a shame because I’m feeling lazy and lethargic. The songs are long and there is much emphasis on thick, crunching grooves, though the band clearly know the benefits of texture, adding quieter melodic sections and acoustic passages throughout. Vocal duties are split 60/40 between male and female contingents within the band, and veer between spoken, sung, chanted and yelled as and when the music so requires. I guess this could be some kind of logical middleground between the ponderous, melodic metal of Tool and the godless dirge that is Isis, though the end result sounds like neither. Other potential comparisons to be drawn are to the likes of Helmet, Kyuss and Engine Kid, though at this point in an already terrible review I’m clearly clutching at straws. Truth be told I have no idea where this band intends to go with it’s competent, highly-polished sound. They lack the grit and filthy underbelly to be something I could recommend to Hydrahead or Southern Lord fans, yet their songs are thankfully not trite enough to be marketed toward mawkish alterna-metal dullards whose only reason for getting up early on a Saturday morning is to watch the Lost Prophets on breakfast television. Such is my quandary. I have scant ammunition with which to shoot this down in flames, but at the same time nothing has drawn me to listen to it for any purpose other than to review it. Apologies to all concerned.