Wednesday, 3 May 2017

Adrift For Days - A Sleepless Grey (Album Review)


Release date: June 06th 2017. Label: Art As Catharsis. Format: CD/DD

A Sleepless Grey – Tracklisting

1.We Stare Into The Sky
2.A Sleepless Grey
3.The Earth Begins To Shake
4.The Spinning Wheel
5.Feast Of Fools
6.This Sinking Feeling
7.When The Knot Unties

Members:

Mick Kaslik - vocals, korg, fx
Steve Kachoyan - drums
Matt Williams - bass
Lachlan R. Dale - guitar
Ron Prince - guitar

Review

Aussie Sludge/Doom Metal collective - Adrift For Days - finally return with their epic third album - A Sleepless Grey. Five years have passed since their last album and Adrift For Days have become angrier since then. 

Whilst Adrift For Days earlier albums had elements of Fuzz, Psych, Drone, Space Rock and Stoner Metal sounds, this album sees the band create a more direct bleak  Sludge/Doom/Drone/Post-Metal sound. Taking influences from Earth and Neurosis this time round, Adrift For Days have delivered their most thrilling and well-rounded album yet.

Opening track - We Stare Into The Sky - embraces the classic earlier AFD sound with the whispery vocals from - Mick - against a more drone/post-rock sound. The heavy murkier sounds that Neurosis has created on their last few albums make their presence felt here but the band play a slower kind of music. The sludge/doom rhythms offer a kind of realism not heard in the band's music before. Maybe the band has become more disillusioned with the world around them. The lyrics have a cold feel to them and that vibe is carried throughout the album.

The band is known for blending different sounds and creating something different to their more famous musical peers. I'm happy to report this is evident yet again. Adrift For Days whilst offering something familiar, the album has its own identity within the epic sixty minute run-time. The songs run past the eight to nine minute mark and that allows Adrift For Days to create different sounds for each individual song.

Songs such as A Sleepless Grey, The Earth Begins To Shake, Forest Of Fools and When The Knot Unties - offer bleak moments of sonic experimentation. Adrift For Days seem to thrive alienating their loyal core audience and that makes A Sleeping Grey such an uncompromising and thrilling album to listen to. The band has taken their earlier sounds and give it an apocalyptic makeover. There are moments of nightmarish desert/drone/folk sounds that are powerful enough to give Dylan Carson of Earth surreal nightmares for years to come. The instrumental work is what you expect from the band - first rate.

This is perhaps their heaviest and most progressive offering to date. The production is the main highlight as the band has never sounded so good. The Sludge/Doom/Post-Metal sounds have hidden extra depth especially on the latter stages of the album. All in all, A Sleepless Grey is a sees Adrift For Days finally in control of their own musical destiny. Hopefully this album will propel them onto a bigger stage as they now have the songs and confidence to make a lasting impression on the international stage.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Art As Catharsis for the promo. A Sleepless Grey will be available to buy on CD/DD via Art As Catharsis from June 06th 2017.

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp