The second full-length from this Savannah, GA outfit sees the band expanding on their sinister blend of metal and sludgy, crusty hardcore with plenty of caustic textures and male/female vocals that range from strained yells to gruff shouts. Three of the band members share the vocal duties, so there are actually tons of tradeoffs, which really adds a lot of intrigue to the material and keeps things interesting throughout. The general level of the songwriting has become more intense and memorable as well, and without losing its at times chaotic and jarring edge. "Fractured" is one of the more schizophrenic tracks that best represents the band's stylistic shifts from gritty Sabbath riffs to acerbic dissonant textures and frantic, noisy arrangements; "Train of Thought" opens with a totally pounding sludge rhythm that sounds like something you'd hear coming from the Southern Lord crowd, spiced up with some awesome harmonics to add a really different sort of sound to the mix; and "Motion and Presence" opens with a weird clean break and some psychedelic feedback noises and pulsing basslines before plowing through an array of other influences and landing back on some pulsing bass and loose, restrained guitar work before the surging discordant melodies of "Welcome Mat to an Abandoned Life" build back in (granted the track is largely softer and more subdued in presence than most of the others). Side B kicks off with "Bottom Line", a much more straightforward song, most directly hinting at a driving sort of Scandinavian crust sound, but with a hint more melody and catchiness to its framework, which is rather effective overall. This slightly more tangible direction tends to stick around for most of the latter half of the record too, what with "Shatter the Clock" jumping in with some chunky power chords and fuzzed out lead runs backing "catchy" sounding vocal arrangements that hit pretty hard before things start to break down and get a little noisier and more grating. "Crashing Slow", an instrumental, ends things off with massively thick and dominant basslines mingling with lush clean guitars and calm percussion that all creates a droning, repetitious sort of lull as things gradually thin out and fade to a close. The recording was handled by Alex Newport and sounds pretty damn good. Sometimes I feel like the vocals are a little thin or too separated from the music, but the clarity is otherwise quite helpful in allowing the basslines a little more breathing room and letting the natural warmth of the percussion do its thing. The guitar tone is pretty interesting as well, because at first it seems like it's not quite heavy enough, but as your ears sink into it you realize that the dryness of the guitars provides just enough crunch without overpowering anything or messing with the crispness of the mix, so everything works out in the end. The LP comes in a pretty large foldout sleeve printed in metallic silver ink, while the black and white inner paper sleeve contains the lyrics and such. Most of the lyrics are pretty abstract and convey bleak images of turmoil and confusion, and I actually really dig a lot of the content quite a bit: "We're smothered with blackened lungs - an internal smog. Have you ever known fear? Have you ever felt fault? Have you ever felt something? Did you ever seem lost?" In the end I'd say this is easily Kylesa's finest material to date, and they're creeping extremely close to the next level of sheer force and impact. They've yet to complete rip my head off, but there are some killer tunes here, and I'm absolutely looking forward to their future efforts.
[Havoc]
Running time - 40:00 (approximately), Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Train of Thought, Motion and Presence, Bottom Line, Shatter the Clock]
Havoc Records - http://www.havocrex.com
