Just when I think my hunger for doom is going to be sated , a band goes and throws my expectations into the vast ocean of their creative aspirations. Not to say these changes aren't growth its just different. The album opens with something more like the kind of 70s prog rock that Opeth once gave ample nods to. The metal comes crashing in at the three minute mark. The production on this album is very lush. The low growled vocals sound big like 90s Morbid Angel. The crush of rumbling death metal tinged doom provides an impressive display of power.The guitar relaxes leading back in to " the Thing that Made Search" and lingers on with an almost jazz cadence. Slow and moody ,its very progressive but I am not sure this is doom. It's very progressive. The laze about on this softened cloud until four minutes in when things get heavier. The growl becomes is even more throat scraping and they continue to churn on the pulse of these mammoth riffs. "Like Red Foam" finds the band coming in to crush with big riffs that have more of a prog metal thing going as they are very angular ,at times the vocals roars is almost sung bringing older Mastodon to mind. A clean proggy croon coasts in over the wave of mathematical chugs.
You would think a song called "the Weed-men" is something more likely to be found on a Six Feet Under album, but I am guessing it's Monster Manual like mythology at work lyrical. Not that you can understand the sub bass gravel of a growl.Three minutes in things change and is dissolves into clean guitar and the "Islands" era King Crimson croon. It returns to a heavy chug that is ominous rather than relying on dirge like riffage. The structure of this songs seems much looser than the others. The guitar playing still remains one of the band's biggest assets along with the wide range of vocals though here the tao mina one are the almost folkish prog voice and the lower growl. " To Mourn Job " brings us back into the crooning prog voice and delicate guitar. At the three minute mark it comes back into one of the album's heaviest chugs. It not doom, but effective.It sounds more like death metal , but there is such a fine line between slow death metal and doom. It doesn't sound very mournful so I'll go with death metal. They go back into something doomy when the clean vocals make their return. One thing I can say about their use of clean vocals is they do it well because they never follow the excepted formula of good cop/ bad cop. The song purposefully collapses into delicate clean guitar. They edge their way back into the heavy crunch and gurgled growl.
The bonus track is "the Light in the Weed" which feels like it belongs on the album. The almost jazz like phrasing they use is really given spot light in the songs first few minutes. It lingers on a dream like , but jammy passage before the clean vocal come in and are eventually followed by a the accents of a distorted guitar that drives it into a heavier place. They are obviously not where they were for the last album, they could stand to return to a doomier place , but even their second best is better than what most band's can muster and it might just be that this needs to grow on me, but for now I'll give these guys a 9.
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