Tau Cross : "s/t"

So you that when Away from Voivod is in a side project now with some of the guys from Amebix and the curst band Misery, so of course I am going to be all over this. The first song falls somewhere between Celtic Frost and Motorhead. It's harder and darker than Voivod, but also  there is now space prog to be found. The first few songs are a much more straight ahead metal affair than you might expect from these guys. "Fire In the Sky" pretty much takes a full chug ahead and "Stone Cutter"  thrashes in a similar manner to "Orgasmatron" era Motorhead, though it is darker.

Ron the Baron Miller throaty vocals are more sung than Lemmy's and on a song like "Midsummer" you can hear some of the Killing Joke influence.Miller sometimes sings more than others times though he never really a growls, but rather tends to gurgle.  It sounds like some one takes the mic for the higher vocal that starts off "Hangman's Hyll". This ends up becoming almost a hard rock folk song. Like Hawkwind jamming with Spinal Tap. The folk infusion does not end there. It carries over into "We Control the Fear"that finds the vocals staying in a lower register, but still capable of holding a smooth melody. This comes to an end with the almost industrial pound of "You People".  Here the Hawkwind collides in the bleak Drugged heaven with Killing Joke. The metallic side of the band begins to once more return as the dominate personality though you can here British post-punk mixing with the chug and punk vocal chants chiming in.

The vocals have a more Fields of the Nephilim urgency on "Sons of the Soul".  When the higher vocals comes in it offsets the lower vocal and creates a more Pink Floyd dynamic. More big industrial tinged metal kicks you in the face on "the Lie". When I say it's industrial I am not saying there are drum machines , but it has a big post-apocalyptic chug like 90s Killing Joke. On this song the guitar solos take it in more of a rock n roll direction, along with the more subdued Dave Gilmore like vocal that coasts in at the end. They keep turning it up past ten on "Our Day". The more folk side resurfaces  to close out the album with "the Devil He knows His Own".This feels more like a outro rather than a song in and of its self. This wasn't what I thought it was going to sound like , but then again I am not complaining either.I'll give this one a 9.5. It could grow on me in either direction at this point , but there are more reasons for it to sway towards a 10 , though the songs are a little simplistic in nature, especially if you compare it to Voi Vod, making it sound like Away is taking it easy. The vocals are where the album shines the most along with the feel the band puts behind the guitars.