Canopy : "Empty Light"

 One of Atlanta's best-kept secrets has just unleashed a new EP that will elevate its status in the metal community. These guys are going above and beyond, as what kept me listening was not the screamed vocals or punchy sludge accents, but the way the chords rang out to create a sense of melancholy. Just being heavy for the sake of being heavy is an easy task, but pouring your pain and depression. These guys are solidly on the side of sludge, there is a penchant for post-rock guitar wandering to balance out their monolithic crunch with the breathing room needed to create a dynamic juxtaposition 

 I have always said that sludge is what happens when punk rock tries to play doom. I can once again stand by that statement as I am sensing from the aggressive manner that some of the riffs on "Shadow Work" attack with that at least half the band got into metal by way of hardcore, as it hits more like that than Black Sabbath. There are moody hints on "Shadow Work' that finds the band allowing darkness to add to the overall sonic scope of their heavy, which I am a big fan of, as they hit the mark in creating something as heavy sonically as it is heavy metal. second song. Still, the depressive undercurrent is not as noted as the first track, which finds perhaps in the EP's subtle bipolar mood swing, another emotional conflict unfolding for "Wound Patrol".

The raw throat howling of their vocalist is the only point of contention with this album. At times they are phrased in a manner that makes them feel like an afterthought, perhaps if they were screamed with more variance, it would not feel like the same flavor of anguish being exclaimed.  The emotional journey the band takes you on balances this out and puts less weight on the vocals, Fistula occupies a trailer park not far from these guys' sonic zip code, there is just less crust to what is going down here. However, Fistula employs similar screams that have more purpose and add to the arrangments where the screams Granted the more extreme hardcore side of sludge, place less emphasis on vocal articulation, and the hooks are not going to be found amid screams of anguish. 

These guys have been around for over a decade, making these a culmination of the perseverance that has brought them to this moment in time. This sense of finding who they are throughout their journey has strengthened their songwriting, unlike other bands in the genre they get to the point without having to drone things out into a sprawl of sound. One of my complaints when it comes to bands coming out today, is they place too much focus on a sound and not enough focus on writing a song, these guys have crafted a well-kept balance here, and their more atmospheric side aids in this. The vocals do give a somewhat uniform feel to the songs, as it was the angular riffing to "Clawing" that kept it from blurring together with the previous song. I will give this album a 9, making it one of the best sludge albums I have spent time with this year. If you are a fan of sonically enthralling sludge that is gut-wrenching yet eerie with it's unique beauty then this album is worth your time.  

pst359