Not too shabby. Here's a succinct yet powerful demo from this Canadian trio that delves into some largely instrumental material that's ultra rhythmic and packs a punch, while seeming to draw influences from a range of sources including math rock, metal, indie rock, and hints of experimental noise. "Don't Drive Faster Than Your Guardian Angel Can Fly" kicks things off with thick harmonics and is among the more dissonant tracks. Vocals finally kick in near the two-minute mark and add some force, but the dynamics continue to shift as everything drops back to light clean guitars and pulsing bass less than a minute later. "That Man, Though" is then but a mere two minutes of ambient drones and faintly audible abstract string scrapings, which leads into the sparsely bleak clean intro of "The Wing in My Head". Distortion kicks in around one minute into the piece with a slow and gritty sense of melody before plowing into a staccato run that's a little quirkier than some of the preceding material. "Thoth" also opens with a reverberated clean passage that eventually cranks into some energetic distorted ascensions and back and forth sludgy discordance, while later in the piece acoustic guitars are introduced for added texture, which is a nice touch as things start to build into an intense climax. The recording is damn good for a demo, and they seem to be going for a tactfully dry sound that retains a warm, natural presence without coming off as too rugged. Since they're a trio the guitar and bass work together very well, and they allow the bass to have a good presence in the mix (though honestly it could still stand to come up a little bit more), while the guitars are nice and smooth during the clean passages and aptly dingy on the distorted end. Vocals so rarely appear that I almost forget their use, but the hoarse screams are expertly placed deep in against the music, which is a nice touch since the drummer handles the vocals and it therefore seems somehow logical for the vocals to sound like they're fighting their way forth from farther back in the distance. There's room for tweaking of course, but all in all the sound is quite suitable, and I wouldn't complain even if this were a proper full-length. The professionally duplicated CD-R is housed in a slim jewel case with a simple insert that has a faintly colored photo of an icy landscape on the cover with clean, simple text and a tiny band photo on the back. No lyrics are included, so I'm left with nothing but the odd song titles to go on. Who knows? Fuck it. I'd absolutely recommend this demo for fans of Engine Kid, Rodan, Knut, and other such acts, and I look forward to hearing more in the future. The insert is hand-numbered out of only 150 copies, so you might want to act quickly if you're interested. This is really good stuff.
[self-released]
Running time - 16:19, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: all four are equally strong]
Husk - http://www.thehusk.net
