YOB - Our Raw Heart (Album Review)

Release date: June 08th 2018. Label: Relapse Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Our Raw Heart – Tracklisting

1.Ablaze

2.The Screen

3.In Reverie

4.Lungs Reach

5.Beauty in Falling Leaves

6.Original Face

7.Our Raw Heart

Members

Mike Scheidt - Guitar, Vocals

Aaron Rieseberg - Bass

Travis Foster - Drums

Review

Greetings All,

This June sees the Mighty Yob releasing their 8th and by my humble opinion their greatest accomplishment to date with Our Raw Heart. This is their first album in almost four years since 2014’s impressive Clearing the Path to Ascend. Our Raw Heart travels some similar territory to that record, while blazing a path to new and unparalleled sounds.

Those familiar are aware that main man Mike Scheidt battled (and defeated) a life threatening medical condition since their last release. The strength and humility that brings to a person is evident throughout Our Raw Heart. Yob’s sound is a brutal, yet beautiful brand of optimistic doom. It is evident that Yob sits atop a higher astral plane than most. Our Raw Heart offers seven fierce testaments to life and all that comes with it. The record is masterfully performed and recorded and the band sounds fresh and energized.

The album opens with the colossal riff of Ablaze which is an epic and intense beast of a song that pummels the listener. Next comes the dark and foreboding The Screen that hammers the listener with it’s black metal feel and a massive, chugging riff throughout. In Reverie is another massive, lumbering track that delivers with killer metal vocals. An ominous bass line drives the unique sound of Lungs Reach.

These songs all show the listener the beauty that exists in the darkness and an understanding of embracing and fighting it. The first four songs have set the listener up for the true centerpiece of the record, the epic and expansive 16 plus minutes of Beauty In Falling Leaves. The song is a true masterpiece, it is blissful and meditative, while at the same time it is both crushingly heavy with some absolute killer riffage and beautifully fragile. It is truly the epitome of a Yob song and a wonder to behold.

Original Face follows with an intensity that is matched by none. The album closes with the epic closer of the title track, Our Raw Heart. The acoustic opening of the track slowly gives way to a dark and heavy, but beautiful close to this breathtaking masterpiece.

Yob have succeeded in spades with Our Raw Heart. It is their finest hour and a testament to the strength of the human spirit, This record will no doubt sit atop many a best of the year lists, and it should. Please check out and support Yob and this epic record. 

Highly Recommended!

Todd S - Instagram @alltheghoststhathauntyou

Words by Todd Stealey

Our Raw Heart is now available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Relapse Records

Links:

Official | Facebook | BandCamp