Sunken Seas :" Glass"

The fuzz bass line drives into the night in search of the distant vocals muttered from the darkness. The guitar creates a noisy drone make  more opaque barrier between the vocals and the music. The vocals not unlike some of the newer punk coming out of northern Europe. This begins as a strange case of good sounds , but not real interest in writing ...well... songs. None of these pieces are sprawling things, there is an actual beat to "Clear" which crosses it over into being a real song, I hope these guys don't think they are selling out by having something as conventional as drums in a song, because I dig it and heavy wall of dense sound that gets brought to life here. This continues to be built up as the songs progress building a buzzing wall of melancholy that is pretty heavy.  I

Don't let the drum beat that opens "Poppy" fool they are not conforming to any indie rock templates with moaned vocals and angular guitar riff.  There is less of a jamming feel and more haunted introspection to the much darker "Alt Figure"  It is also on this song that I begin to hear if the singer really tried he could actually sing. There is the krautrock ambiance of "Scarlet" that is more of an interlude than  a song. "Crane of Foll" is more rock n roll. This brand of rock they roll with has some new wave tendencies. The singer's voice begins to find melody as they punch some hooky accents letting what would be a poppy melody drone on in the cloud of feed back and effects hovering over them.

There is a stomp to "Metasoma" the vocals are dragged back behind the beat by depression in their continual challenge to the listener. There is emotion in the vocal it's just very down trodden, like the struggle to sing is on the same level as the struggle those with severe depression have to get up every morning. A slow machine pulse opens " No Way Through the Fog" which is aptly titled as that is what this song sounds like. The vocals are behind the fog until the drums kick in with an ominous pound. It is not doom but heavy in much the same way doom is. The vocal murmur comes closer to center stage. He cries out the songs title as the effect roll over his voice and a guitar melody unfolds. The thing about this album that is making me want to round this up to a 9 is how when they are on it and the song is locked then they have something dark and wonderful, some of the looser noise this album plays a tug of war with  is one of those things I guess I have to be in the mood for. But I am totally down for giving these guys a shot on the iPod and see how they sit with me.