Catching Up With 2013 : Sannhet's " Known Flood"

Sannhet is an Instrumental band from Brooklyn who released this full length back in February.  It's only slightly more black metal than the new Russian Circles, but avoids the middle of the road Tool riffs. While the fact for the  entirety first song I was not obsessed with waiting for the vocals to come in . means they are doing something right. I was pulling up their Metallum page , which informed me they were instrumental. So it's not what I normally listen to it is well crafted by guys with some undeniable talent.

The use of samples often helps fill the void left by the lack of vocals. The album is intense with sweeping passages but is a pretty soothing listen.Like Russian Circles , their drummer works over time to keep things moving, though this guy might be even better, while less intricate in his high hat work, he does have the power of the blast beat to turn to when it is needed, and it feels like he hits harder. By the time the album gets to "Endless Walls" they have still kept my attention, but I have begun to wonder how much longer this will last, as the song slowly bubble awake. This song is largely ambient noise that reaches a boil after the first two an a half minutes, and even then there is tension when there should be release, but maybe thats the game they are playing.

They increase in power on " Moral" which has a heavy sonic payload. "Slow Ruin" gets off to a more relaxed but no less ominous start, the syncopation heads in the more Russian Circles direction. It reaches the highest altitude from chilling ambiance to blasting and with a seven minute running times it has long enough to wander the scope of dynamics  without being too self indulgent. "Haunches" finds some growling emerge, it is very low in the mix and coupled with the tom pound sets it up to sound like Neurosis. But this goes to show that vocals on their own don't make the song more interesting as the screams are pretty typical mid range more of a hard core or sludge feel to them.

The bass line to "Still Breathing" gives a darker creepiness , allowing the samples and the guitar to haunt the song as it drifts in."Flat Lands" serves as more of a noisy outro than a song. Overall this album has a good mood to it and holds my attention as an instrumental album, I will give it an 8.5 thought I'm not sure how much mileage it will get on my iPod.