Tuesday, 26 July 2016

EERIE - S/T (Album Review)


Release date: July 29th 2016. Label: TeePee Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

EERIE – S/T – Tracklisting

Hideous Serpent
Yeti
Master Of Creation
Immortal Rot
Blood Drinker

Band Members:

Tim Lehi – Guitars
Dave Sweetapple – Bass
Moses Saarni – Drummer
Shane Baker – Vocals

Review:

EERIE’s debut album is being released on TeePee Records. Not the first label that comes to mind to release a Black Metal album. EERIE’s style of Black Metal is firmly rooted in Doom, Heavy Metal, Psychedelic Rock and Stoner Rock at times. The album is more Doom Metal with shades of pure Black Metal being the main heartbeat of this album.

Opening track – Hideous Serpent – takes influence from the modern newer sound of Black Metal bands but merged with a murky Black Sabbath feel with elements of Psychedelic Rock and Heavy Metal The vocals from lead vocalist Shane are one of the albums main strengths as he keeps you intrigued from the very start. The instrumental work is swift and very powerful, that isn’t surprising when you consider the talent involved with EERIE.

Second track – Yeti – carries on the devilish and wicked fun with harsher riffs and grizzled vocals. With a ten minute run time, EERIE could have easily become bogged down with the different style of music they offer, so it’s to their credit they’ve created perhaps the standout song on the album. It’s a celebration of all things loud, dangerous and heavy. Doom and gloom atmospherics given a psychedelic black metal makeover that will have you entertained throughout. The instrumental work once again is frantic, crazy and fast-paced that will only endear them further to both fans of the Hard Rock and Extreme Metal scenes.

Third track – Master Of Creation – is another epic track that opens with a superb grizzled psych riff that allows the band to expand their sound even more. The wicked black metal vibe isn’t too far behind but EERIE’s sound is more than that, it’s a wildly inventive and highly original sound that harks back to the classic early years of heavy metal. This track has a Mastodon kind of vibe running through out but it’s louder than anything that Mastodon have released over the last five years or so. A complex sounding progressive stoner groove holds everything together for another one of the albums standout songs.

The final two tracks Immortal Rats and Blood Drinkers are shorter at five minutes and six minutes respectively and it sees EERIE only expand their Black Metal/Doom/Stoner/Psych based sounds. These two songs offer perhaps the gloomiest and heaviest moments on the album as EERIE play epic guitar riffs with lead vocalist Shane excelling yet again.

The album may not seem very progressive from the first listen but with each repeated listen, you begin to hear many different ideas throughout the album. EERIE’s debut album is an exciting and often thrilling release that I want to hear more of in the future. Superb stuff.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Carl at Action PR for the promo. EERIE S/T debut album will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via TeePee Records from July 29th 2016.

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