Floods : "S/t"

Here is a band out of the Brooklyn scene that isn't conforming to what their cohorts are doing and takes black metal in a more progressive sludge like direction.  The album is dense and they do get credit for not just throwing blast beats at you. The snarling vocals that sit back behind the guitars gives every song as some what uniform feel as they tend to phrase everything in a somewhat similar fashion. It is clear these guys are into Mastodon as much as they are into black metal. So with that said the riffs can take on a herky jerky angular quality. Not that Mastodon is the only band to do that sort of thing , but at one time it was clearly their bread and butter. The drums have a very stormy quality to them as they pound in circular fashion around the guitar.

"Coercive" almost has more of an old Converge feel to it. The more spastic and unhinged side of Converge and obviously Today is the Day, influenced Mastodon early on so you can hear some trickle down here. 'Stations " find things galloping out into a more metallic and black metal sound. The song really gets good when it slows into more of a stomp. "Angels of Failure" rages on in a more straight forward fashion than the other songs. While it feels more like black metal than some of the other songs I think this band's strength is not trying to be Mutilation Rites , but adding their other influences which take more of a back seat hear

I'll give this album a 7.5 . It got off to a strong start and then like a little kid trying to run down hill to fast it's legs got the best of them. With that said if you are looking for some black metal that has other elements because a-you are tired of the black metal you have or b- you like the idea of black metal but unsure if you want to commit to Burzum. Then these guys are a pretty good entry point for a novice.