Ok, cards on the table: my cards are not metal. In the game of music, I picked up a ‘go straight to noise, do not pass metal’ card in my teens. I’ve picked up on a few things here and there since – you know, the sedate stuff. Agorophobic Nosebleed or whatever. All fun and games. I wouldn’t say metal wasn’t my cup of tea. But I also wouldn’t say my go-to cuppa was a metal one.
Anyway. Somnus. Bristol-based metal band. Riffs as thick as an ancient oak tree. Heavy like conspicuously collapsed buildings. Three-and-a-half minutes into the fourth song before the first guitar solo, which disappears again pretty sharpish. All pretty strong recommendations in my world. Influence-wise, there’s moments of Down-style Southern Rock, Grindcore, maybe Neurosis-like doom… With the exception of the acoustic-ish opener “The Subtle Kiss Before The Slaughter,” all of the tracks move from place to place pretty sharpish. No faffing about on one idea for too long for these lads. And enough chug to keep a train-fanatics convention happy for millenia.I might be wrong (it has been known) but I could swear that track 3 (“Killer”) has a bit of a feel of the road movie soundtrack about it. It does that thing of not really doing anything melodically while having an endless array of rhythmic variations. And a bass-tone filthy enough to merit being arrested on sight. I’m not sure you’re allowed to find this kind of thing sexy, but tell that to my balls. They won’t listen.
I’m going to go out on a limb (perhaps that metaphorical limb is of the aforementioned oak tree) and say that what’s setting this record apart for me is the production – it seems much bigger, fuller, heavier because there’s plenty of space between the notes. None of the instruments cloud another, and the vocals aren’t struggling under the bigger sounds. It’s been mastered relatively quietly, rather than that mastering that seems louder but actually makes bass drums sound like toy trumpets underwater. Jim of Tasty Productions has done a sterling job here. Arguably nepotistically, given that since recording this he’s joined the band on drums. There’s moments of this where the reverb-tails on the vocals, with the endlessly grinding guitars, reminded me of the sort of thing psychedelic music is meant to do. Trippy, smart, heavy… under the bonnet, we’ve got a really smart band here. Though ‘smart’ doesn’t mean they sacrifice on the heavy-as-Neptune’s-gravity riffs. No sir…I haven’t seen the new line-up but I did catch them in Bristol last year, and they were a making a formidable racket then. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the heightened brutality of their live show, so definitely worth catching if you get the chance. Anger, riffs, angry riffs, smart arrangements, angry arrangements, blinding production… what more could you want? Nothing, that’s what.
-Kev Nickells-
