Thursday 1 October 2015

The Day Of Locusts - From The Gutter To The Gods (Album Review)


Release date: October 5th 2015. Label: When Planets Collide. Formats: CD/DD

From The Gutter To The Gods - Tracklisting

1.MMXV
2. Beyond the zero
3. Misery swallowed whole
4. Through the eyes of Daedalus
5. Apokalypsis
6. And the wages of sin is death
7.War nam nihadan
8. Damnation of memory

Band Members:

NEILL - 7 String Madness and vocal gurns
HEINIMANN - Bass Quakes
GUY - Mind Hammering Beat Grafting

Review:

The Day Of Locusts debut album – From The Gutter To The Gods – is a very hard album to describe and possibly enjoy especially for the less adventurous music fans out there. The Day Of Locusts music can be described as a lot of things – Doom, Sludge, Post-Metal, Folk, Prog Metal and Stoner. It’s hard to decide as the band doesn’t make it easy for the listener as they constantly change direction every few minutes or so.

The best description comes from the guys themselves or at least the PR sheet that came with the album. ‘Crowbar fighting Pink Floyd in quicksand.’ – Opening track – MMXV – is a progressive sludge instrumental track that’s dliberately slow-paced as it allows the band to create some haunting groove based riffs with a slight psychedelic edge.

Second track – Beyond The Zero – is a 12 minute song that offers you the first real glimpse of The Day Of Locusts. Down-tuned Sludge/Post-Metal riffs with loud demonic vocals to match. The music shifts from a distilled thrash metal approach to a heavier prog-metal style and it instantly draws you in as it has quite the doom and gloom atmosphere. The sound could have done with a little bit more “OOOMPH” as it’s not clear at times. Other than that, The Day Of Locusts creates a haunting and highly atmospheric song.

You begin to sense early on with the album that the band likes to experiment with their sound and tease you to a wide range of different sounds and noises. Third track – Misery Swallowed Whole – is another epic song from the album. Almost 15 mins this time. It opens with a folk-rock guitar solo before the band opt for a Progressive Sludge/Post-Metal feel with a hefty sideline of noisy and violent psychedelic riffs. The vocals are sung with anger and precision which make this one of the standout songs on the album. Shades of Opeth can be heard here and there especially when the harmonized orchestral vocals appear. Heavenly, blissful but when matched against the heavier prog-metal riffs then you have a jaw-dropping moment of brilliance.

Fourth track – Through The Eyes Of Daedulus – will have fans of old school Thrash/Doom Metal rejoicing as the band offer something different once more. The vocals move away from the albums earlier sounds with doomy angelic vocals being sung from time to time though when the familiar harsh vocals of lead vocalist – Neill – then chaos and destruction return to reign supreme. The riffs are superb once again with the band playing a wide range of different styles.

Fifth track – Apokalypsis – is an ambient post-rock driven song with the band trying something different yet again. It’s not the most exciting of sounds but it’s good to see a tender and caring side from the band. Sixth track – And The Wages Of Sin is Death – sees the band go for a classic NWOBHM style sound matched against Thrash Metal riffs. Though you can still hear a Doom/Post-Metal influence in the background.

Seventh track – War Nam Nihadan – is another ambient based song that lasts less than 90 seconds. It could have easily been left out but I let the guys off here as there are some fantastic sounds on the record. Doom, Ambient, Noise and Drone wrapped up in one loving sinister gloomy package. It leads onto the final song – Damnation Of Memory – and this is where the band starts to experiment with your mind as they offer 70s style Psych Rock, Folk, Doom, Sludge and anything else they can muster. It may start off as a love letter to bands such as Pink Floyd, Yes and Genesis but this is a Metal band at heart. The heavier destructive riffs are never too far behind. It’s a loving embrace of Psych/Folk Rock vibes matched against the heavy thunderous Sludge/Doom/Post-Metal riffs.

My final thoughts are that From The Gutter To The Gods is simply an unmissable album. The Day Of Locusts may have created one of the craziest, insane, and exciting debut albums the UK Extreme Metal scene has released this year or any year for that matter.

Thanks to When Planets Collide for the promo. From The Gutter To The Gods will be available to buy on CD/DD from When Planets Collide from October 5th 2015.

Words by Steve Howe

Links: