Labels: self released
Review by: Gareth L
For the longest time I have wanted to call this band Vazquez, not quite sure why. Anyway it is probably post-metal, which I believe to be a genre, lots of distortion and reverb and effectsss on the vocalsss and suchlike. It has the feel of a bedroom recording though, the treble on the recording seems really high like a lot of one-man black metal bands. And this is a little grim in places, opener ‘Asleep at the Wheel’ crawls along ominously, the raw recording and the lovely synth, or something that sounds like a synth, adding to the atmosphere and that black metal feel.
Even within the first song though there are so many changes, different vocal styles, some clean guitar work, pulling you in a variety of directions so you’re never quite comfortable and to me that is the strength of the album. Few things match listening to an album for the first time and being surprised several times per track at what you hear. This is probably influenced by the eclectic ‘reference points and inspirations’ (everything from Jung and Camus to Deftones and Cult of Luna) listed on the promo sheet. The tracks that are a bit more dreary and repetitive (see ‘Sulfur & Salt’) are less interesting.
That’s doing it a bit of a disservice though, there really is something here for everyone, for psychoanalysts and nu-metal fans, there are cool ambient electronica parts, rock out argh! parts, and pretty much everything inbetween. Sure, I could do without some of the ‘singy’ parts and some songs pass me by, the track ‘Adoration’ for example, but here Vaquez seem to know the listener’s interest might be waning after 5 minutes of nothing much so stick in a massive riff right at the beginning of the next track. The key thing here though is atmosphere, it’s claustrophobic and dark and this production and style suits the band very well.