Labels: self released
Review by: Alex Deller
Apparently the spur for forming Empress was two members of the band attending an Elder gig. Not much of a story, it has to be said, but honesty has to count for something. You can definitely hear some Elder sloshing around in the melting pot, too, along with stuff like Floor and Isis: big, rumbly, hairy-faced metal that skirts from doom to sludge to post-metal and back again. Elsewhere, ‘Immer’ plays out with a big Mogwai-like finale, while ‘They Speak Like Trees’ has some epic octavery that wouldn’t sound out of place on one of the later Envy records. It’s all sturdy if rather unspectacular, but considering the band bashed it out in a mere two months there’s plenty of time yet for them to find their own identity.