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Sunday 6 December 2020

Reviews: Gone Is Gone, Persuader, Embr, Sense Offender/They Live We Sleep (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

Gone Is Gone: If Everything Happens For A Reason... Then Nothing Really Matters At All (Clouds Hill)

Yet again I seem to be saying the words Troy Sanders and supergroup in a review. A few weeks after the excellent Killer Be Killed release, the Mastodon singer/bassist returns with his other collaborative effort Gone Is Gone and while KBK is a rip snorting mix of metal, hardcore, sludge and punk. Gone Is Gone is much more ethereal progressive affair. If Everything Happens For A Reason... Then Nothing Really Matters At All is the band's second full length following from Echolocation in 2017. Yet again the band membership has stayed the same for this record with Sanders on vocals and bass, QOTSA guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, At The Drive In drummer Tony Hajjar and multi-instrumentalist Mike Zarin who takes guitars/keys. 

Unlike their previous two efforts, Echolocation and the self titled EP, this record has been brought together under the proviso that it should expand on what has come before but to also make things simple enough that any member of the band could play it with few augmentations. It's an immediate difference as you press play on IEHFARTNRMAA as the proggy/stoner/alt rock of their past albums is all but washed away in haze of atmospheric ambience and industrial throbbing. The electronics really making their mark from the first moment as Sanders delivers a very eclectic vocal that shifts away from his normal soulful roar and into more despondent, introspective vocal lines. 

A song such as Sometimes I Feel shows the shift in sound perfectly, it's got expressive, persistent drums and a driving riff in opposition to some twisting synths and evocative electronics interspersed with some samples for a more cinematic edge that this record is going for, the sequencing helps with this, the songs all sort of linking together for a singular piece as short interludes act as the links. It's sort of like NIN playing The Wall as the denseness of the electronics really add a new dimension on tracks like Breaks which owes much more to Depeche Mode or Krautrock than any of the members rockier influences. A dramatic shift towards a more out there style of musical experimentation, Tanze Mitt Gone Is Gone. 7/10   

Persuader: Necromancy (Frontiers Music Srl)

Formed in 1997, Necromancy is surprisingly only the fifth studio album from Swedish power metal band Persuader, their first on Frontiers Music Persuader play a heavy speed-metal influenced style of power metal that sounds a lot like early-Blind Guardian. Blistering double kick drums from sticksman Efraim Juntunen thunder tracks like Scars and Raise The Dead while the dual guitars of Emil Norberg and Fredrik Mannberg bring a much more distorted, thrashier sound than the normal style of breezy power metal. However where you will really notice the Blind Guardian influence is through the vocals of Jens Carlsson who is a dead ringer for Hansi Kursch, having the same intonation and delivery as the BG frontman occasionally shifting into shouts on the aggressive Reign Of Darkness. Since the release of their 2014 record they have lost two members but this hasn't stopped them as they move into a new chapter of their exisitence. Necromancy is a decent debut record on Frontiers, showing you what Persuader are about as a band, now with a major label behind them, we can hopefully expect more, frequent releases from thes Swedish stalwarts. 7/10

Embr: Idolatry (New Heavy Sounds)

Back in July of this year I gave Alabama band Embr's debut album of "Soulful Doom Rock" 1823 an 8/10 making references to Royal Thunder and Torche bringing massive down-tuned riffs and a haunting feeling that has a doomy/grungy style. Obviously due to the pandemic the band have clearly been busy as they have managed to knock out this covers EP. Idolatry focuses on bands that have influenced Embr, to be more specific, it focuses on that golden age of grunge. The four tracks here come from Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, they are not your run-of-the-mill covers either with the exception of Heart Shaped Box the other three tracks could been seen as 'deep cuts'. 

STP's Down gets a crushing overhaul Crystal's voice making Weiland's lyrics her own while husband Erik (drums) and bassist Jeremy Allen add a massive groove to it, though Heart Shaped Box brings colossal doom riffs from Craig Shadiz who down-tunes those Jerry Cantrell grooves on Junkhead. The tracks on this record have been perfectly adapted into Embr's heavier sound, all with the exception of Mailman by Soundgarden which is as heavy as it should be and like the rest of the album serves a fitting tribute to the bands. I've reviewed doom/stoner bands covering grunge acts before and the two genes seem to work together well so this four track stopgap EP is a great little treat for the festive season. 7/10

Sense Offender/They Live We Sleep: Spilt (Trepanation Recordings/FHED)

Six tracks, two bands and one massive audio assault from beginning to end. That's what you get from this spilt record from raging hardcore punkists They Live We Sleep (no strangers to the blog) and aggressive sludgers Sense Offender (new to these ears) both bands churn their butter with the furious precision of mathcore for a frenzied, explosive heaviness. 

The first three tracks on this record come from Sense Offender who star things off with slow, dissonant sludge riffs which shift into the kind of crushing riffage bands such as Eyehategod are known for, it's also their longest track at over 5 minutes the following two much shorter and but no less effective. Flatline Connectors that first song shifts into a percussive closing part with s ringing chord sequence adding a foreboding sound at the climax. Sense Offender are Jack (vocals), Andy (guitar), Danny (bass) and Ian (drums) and their music is painfully obtuse with the hardcore and sludge balanced for a sound coming from the dirty part of NOLA. 

Then we get to They Live We Sleep, Ben Jones (vocals), Ross Pullin (guitar), Mike Wood (guitar), Niall Kulianos (bass) and Adam French-Henderson (drums) get their part of the split up and running with the nasty Vacant Host a rager that breaks down numerous times while keeping things nice and fast, Suffer Silent is a lot more straightforward with some proggy riffs before things shift at the end for yet more crunchy sludge, while their final track False Gods is possibly the best on the album, full of raging vocals and shifting riffs moving from hardcor punk to grinding post metal.

This spilt comes from two of the most exciting extreme bands around and while often we focus on black and death metal as the leaders in this extreme sound, the sheer abrasiveness of hardcore and sludge bands like this are almost abusive, but it's a cathartic experience when they work well. Happily this spilt will have you develving into the releases of these two bands. 8/10   

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