the Acacia Strain : "Step into the Light"

This band is releasing two albums , here is the first. It finds metal core being done with a burlier desire, and production that is dialed in to not sound over produced while capturing some crushing guitar sounds. The do not begin to get more on the grind core side of spastic until 'Chain". The first two songs worked well enough for me thanks to the reframed production value. But can they continue to be this pounding and heavy without growing boring? The fact they are short songs helps. "Fresh Bones" is the first that breaks the two minute mark. "Teeth of the Cursed Dog' is more deliberate but the songs are starting to numb me into finding the crunch of their sound creating a uniformity that is beginning to make everything sound the same. 

"Open Wound' is more of a death metal song. The double bass drives it. The vocals are the only thing bringing more of a hard core influence. This takes a more pronounced turned on "SINKHOLE" as they are more fully committed to being a hard core band, with the vocals letting up on some of the growl. The pace is more deliberate for sure. They go for more of a break down after leading off a chant. While predictable it is effective. The drummer bands his China to cymbalize this. "Is This Really Happening?" finds maximum density reached as the chugs turn to metallic slush in my ears. Perhaps they need to lean into their death metal side a little more. 

They do this to some extent on "Untended Graves" , but it is also tempered with hardcore. I can appreciate the lyrical sentiment on "None of Us Asked to Be Here". It is much more death metal in theme. If you only listen to music in order to have your ears pounding by heaviness, then I am not sure why you are reading this blog as that kind of music is something that only impresses me for a song. Here they vary things enough to earn an 8, lets see what they do on the second album. 

8

the Acacia Strain : "Failure Will Follow"

 

The first of these two diverging album the band released "Step into the Light' was almost grind core like in it's hard-core take on death metal. Lots of hammering break down and such. This album is going to be different as there are three sprawling songs. I think I might prefer the shorter songs, though I only gave that album an 8 as it all began to sound the same for me. While laid out in more of a textured throb, what if they took these songs and broke them up into more sensible lengths? I appreciate the sonic intensity, but there is plenty of fat that could have been trimmed in order to keep it under the eleven and a half minutes it consumes. There are some interesting sounds woven in , I think the arrangement could have been dialed back and still made the artistic point they are trying to make. 

The seventeen minute "Bog Walker" is perhaps more absurd in this regard. A distorted bass is banged about for three minutes before anything happens. Ok I get they wanted to make a doom album. It is a very sludged out take on doom, but darker than the first album. They almost sing on the verse of this song, though harsher vocals come out of this. Then the do a gang singing thing that has a much different feel. One they reach the lumbering groove this locks into, it stays there. A few variations transpire with in this, but it's like an idea they just jammed over. 

The third an final songs, just sound like a chaotic death doom band that dropped acid in the studio. Perhaps possessed by the most angry hammering of the three songs found here. The more melodic moments of atmosphere do not come to make things more interesting until the final minutes of this song. I will round this down to an 8, I think smarter song writing choices could have found the band combine the best moments from both albums to create something great. It's impressive as it is here, but could have been better.These guys are not Opeth and this is not 'Deliverence" and "Damnation"