Bleeth : "Marionette"

The opening track from this Miami trio finds noise rock meeting darker sludge grit. The vocals are a sluggish moan, leaving the entire sound to feel like it was lost in the 90s. Cvlt Nation compared them to Kylesa and I did not hear that until the second song when the vocals of guitarist Lauren Palma took over the mic. The dynamic it is contrasted by on the chorus is not as heavy as Kylesa and feels more like grunge to me, think L7 or Veruca Salt here. I do prefer this over the opening track. 'Medusa" stumbled forward with a woozy blur before the male vocals barked back on "Devils Advocate". This more aggressive stance finds the band falling on the heavier end of noise rock.

There is a heavier stomp on "Break Free' that carries more of a Helmet-like syncopation to power it. The pounding lumber of "Placebo" has a darker Jesus Lizard creep that wins me over and I like how the howl of the vocals works with the swaggering groove making it one of the album's strongest songs. "Snake Eyes" is possessed by a punk recklessness, that might put its message before its sense of dynamics. "Pro-Choice" is better than the previous song as there is more thought placed on how the vocals fall over the music, though it is not the album's best song. 

I like what they are doing on "Reflections" though I am not sure what they are doing is enough to warrant a song, it felt like I was just listening to them jam while waiting for the actual song to kick in but, the direction they were heading felt solid. They are back on the more grunge vibes for the last song. I like where they end up going with it as the heavier groove works well. I will give this album a 9, it's solid, if you want something in the sludge meets grunge vein not unlike what bands like Torche used to do, or the Melvins might be another fair point of comparison at times. This album drops on Seeing Red Records on April 1st. 

pst91