Don’t know if the title refers to the lengthy gap between albums (roughly forty years or so, by my reckoning), but whatever the weather it’s good to have these grizzled sluggers back in the ring and pounding out the filthy sludge metal goods again. Despite the wait there’s not been a drastic amount of stylistic change, and while things have bulked out, gotten a little deeper and sprouted a few more wiry hairs the same suppurating EHG / Molehill / Noothgrush sludge is still very much on display. The clearest differences are that, in their brisker moments, the drunken, clubfooted bounce of yore has largely been replaced with a more focused crust thrust and, on tracks like the excellent ‘Gravity Is A Relic’, some borderline tasteful fretwork can even be discovered. While these influences might not suggest the band have expanded their sonic palette too far (indeed, if I was being an egregious prick I’d say they’ve part-traded one lot of well-worn sounds for another…) the band nevertheless do pretty much exactly what you want them to: they crush; they smash; they rend limbs and they bury their hog-like snout deep in your steaming guts while you’re still panting out your last shallow breaths.
