November is Doom- Primitive Man : "Observance"

 

Here is a band that proves my theory regarding sludge being the result of what happens when punks try to make doom. This is not our first rodeo with this band, and the rumble created here, which is thrown against a wall of feedback back, is what you expect them to hit you with. The rasp of the vocals echoing out feels like a more tormented version of death metal, and the atmospheric choices that paint this song are a wise investment to keep it from being more than your eardrums being pulverised. 

The second song opens with a minute and a half of noise that sounds like they caught the studio on fire. Then the drums come in to take things in a more doom-focused direction. They drone on for a bit before bringing down a harsh, deliberate pounding that accompanies the low growl of the vocals, which are just another punishing texture. At the five-minute mark, I begin to wonder what they could do for the next six minutes. The answer to this is lingering in the aftermath of the pounding fury. The guitar ambiance is plenty harrowing, and they create sounds that provide a fitting enough soundtrack to the real-time stream of the end of the world we are watching these days. This does contract dynamically into doom-tinted moments of heavy-handed chord dropping like a comet. This evolves into a swathe of angry atmosphere where the roar of the vocals rumbles on more abstractly.

The lumbering stomp of "Transactional" carries on the sonic aftermath of what unfolded in the previous song. The downtrodden trudge of crunching chords continues to drone on. Four minutes in, it begins to gain a throbbing momentum. Eight minutes in it starts soaring off into more of a shoegazing thing. It crashes back down into the kind of dense sludge that is the album's blood. They come back angrier and more in your face with the feedback barbed "Natural Law". Midway into the song, it finds its groove to become one of the album's most effective moments. They also begin to adhere to a formula that finds them jamming things out into a more post-rock place that stays anchored in heaviness thanks to the growl of the vocals. 

"Social Contract" opens with some Throbbing Gristle-like clanging. This drones on for four minutes before payoff. This is not the first time they have dabbled in industrial, though I prefer their previous efforts in this regard. There is some dark dissoance to this song that works well. This album finds the heavier moments sometimes crossing over into death metal levels of aggression. The last song picks up right where the previous song leaves off, with crushing death metal-flavored sludge that is full of venomous loathing. The song slowly begins to deconstruction into a sonically heavier guitar passage, more than a metallic riff-style playing. I will give this album a 7.5, as it focuses on scathing sounds and drifting into post-rock moods with them, rather than memorable songs; some of this is due to the vocals being used as a frequency rather than more purposefully. Being released on Relapse Records. 

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