DWELLING BELOW : "Wearisome Guardians"

Members of Hierarchies formed this band to dig into the doomier aspects of death metal. Not sure why there seems to be another surge of death doom bands, but that is where we are at. These guys are going to need to find a good reason to convince me why they needed a 13-minute opening track. It does not go in the direction you expect, but rather these guys take what is a pretty catchy riff and jam on it, riding the riff for all its worth for the duration of the song, with the drums clocking the intensity levels. They apply this to the second song as wellbut it feels like the bass line is more of the core of this jam, and the guitar is creating layers of chaotic atmosphere around. I think this still works and makes for an interesting enough listen.

After the interlude, things change to a more standard metal formula, and that is where this album begins to lose some of its charm, as plunging into blackened tremolo-picked guitar parts and focusing on the sharp edge of the heavy sword is something I get tired of after hearing it all the time. Not sure if this was done to prove to themselves that they could do it, or to prove to the other bands they play with, or an appeal to the lowest common denominator of an audience? The changes on this song are more subtle, and the layers are pretty dense thanks to how this was recorded. They do still have a core riff running through the jam, but the sound is collected to make it sound like every other band I hear doing this sort of thing. If you are a heavy band, the more experimentation the better. 

"The Altar' is more deliberate, but another thing about this band is the fact that the low, gurgled growl of the vocals is merely an obligatory layer, with no real purpose. You can not convince me there are even lyrics written for this. This takes away from any attempt at songwriting and feels like a gallery of riffage. This leaves dark and heavy as the sole selling points, rather than anything that makes me want to listen to this album again. On the last song, things race back into the more feral side of death metal, and death metal is what his album is at its core. A cool guitar melody does emerge from the fray, but not sure if it can support an entire ten and a half minute song. I give this album an 8 as I appreciate its more organic jammed aspect, but personally prefer death metal that has more purpose when it comes to the vocals. This is being released on Halloween by Transcending Obscurity. 

pst404