Release Date: February 27th 2026. Record Label: Church Road Records. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
Above, Below And So - Tracklisting
1. The House Always Wins
2. Glitter Skin
3. The Flood
4. O Suna
5. A Virus
6. Hooks
Members
Scott Stronach - Drums
James Kirk - Guitar/Vox
Mark Ainsworth - Bass
Review
Above, Below and So is the third album from Post-Metal/Atmospheric Doom Metallers Matador and sees the band move away from their Stoner Metal influences heard on their previous albums. As the band move themselves more closely to the Psych Metal and Post-Metal scenes than ever before for a record that’s emotionally engaging throughout. The album is influenced by the likes of Cult Of Luna, Mastodon, ISIS, YOB and NEUROSIS with Matador creating their own hard-hitting blend of Progressive Metal.
This record has a lot of different musical elements to really stand out from the crowd with Matador exploring different creative themes with multiple beatdowns, breakdowns, psychedelic loops and other riffs based trickery that adds a real aura of mystery to their music. Sometimes the band mould Post-Rock mechanics against Nu-Metal based surroundings for an aggressive and surreal musical energy that’s very hard to define which is put to great effect within the excellent opening tracks of The House Always Wins and Glitter Skin.
The vocals are a mixture of harsh and clean sounds which can be quite emotional and brutally ferocious from lead vocalist/guitarist James Kirk who has a transcendent tribal energy that appears inside the quieter and reflective moments. The lyrics are another highlight that do remind me of TOOL and YOB in many different ways with Matador combining them against truly WTF musical passages that harness the power of Post-Rock, Ambient Metal and Psychedelic Sludge Metal to their fullest potential.
Matador uses a lot of sonic manipulation and psychedelic experimentation to their full advantage which adds a classic style of Alt Metal into the mix. The music really comes alive when they play a beautiful Post-Rock passage before destroying this momentum and playing a destructive Post-Metal/Sludge Metal melody with flashes of Psychedelic swagger into the mix.
When all these items join forces then Matador is a force to be reckoned with. It does take some time for these moments to fully come together and take complete control especially from the stunning third track The Flood which sees Matador let fly with the heaviest, trippiest and grooviest parts of the whole album. The whole mood does become more euphoric and quite hazy with Matador moving from Post-Rock, Post-Metal and even Groove Metal in places. It seems the band are always changing their sound but still keeping closely to their Doom Metal/Post-Metal roots.
Above, Below and So does become more Post-Metal and Prog Metal obsessive on the later stages of the album but Matador still continues to develop their own great style of Progressive energy into the mix on tracks such as A Virus and Hooks. There’s a brooding and mysterious storytelling element hidden within their music that makes you question everything happening around you. You have to give Matador credit for creating a highly provoking and deeply subversive record whilst still creating a record full of brilliant sounding music from start to finish.
This is an absolute BEAST of an album which I've been listening to constantly for the past month. It's seriously that great and should propel Matador to bigger and better things as the album has real potential to become one of the standout Psych/Doom/Sludge Metal albums to listen to this year.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Church Road Records for the promo.
Above, Below and So is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl from Church Road Records.
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