Not bad. This is an interesting two-song demo from this Japanese act that uses guitar, fretless bass, drums, standing drums, and a dual vocal attack to create some doomy, sludgy material that has a caustic edge to it. The fretless bass is incredibly smooth and eerie, and the added percussion definitely adds a unique feel in cooperation with the fretless bass runs, while the guitars are intensely distorted walls of thick chords that are pretty straightforward, at times getting more dissonant or dropping back on the distortion. The second (longer and largely instrumental) track, for example, uses a lot of eerie and more involved dissonant chords/notes and some sludgier textures on the distortion that let the bass show through a little more against the bashing percussive patterns. The drumming is nice as well because it ranges from a tribal sort of simplicity to a more frantic sort of blasting, and all of the basslines are generally quite melodic compared to everything else. The vocals are all higher-end screams with a faint hint of distortion. The recording is fucking great for what it is, especially for a demo. The mix is even, it's pretty clear, the tones are all well-rounded, etc. I have no real complaints at all. It could use minor tweaking, but it sounds fucking killer already. The CD-R comes in a plastic sleeve with a black and white onecard insert (pro-printed) and a black and white sticker. Most of the text, including the song titles, is in Japanese, and no lyrics are included at all, so it's a mysterious little demo. This definitely sounds to me like something that would fit in very nicely with the slower and more ominous side of the Hydra Head family, and I would highly recommend this. I imagine contacting this band without being able to speak Japanese is going to be a chore, but this material is excellent and absolutely deserves wider worldwide exposure. Very nice work. I damn sure hope to hear more from this band.
[self-released]
Running time - 12:27, Tracks: 2
[Notable tracks: the titles are all listed in Japanese]
Ryokuchi - http://www.sound.jp/ryokuchi/
