Thursday 11 July 2019

CABLE - Take The Stairs To Hell (Album Review)


Release date: July 26th 2019. Label: Translation Loss Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Take The Stairs To Hell – Tracklisting

1.Forest Dream (intro)
2.It Cost Me Everything
3.Black Medicine
4.Low Man
5.Rats on Fire
6.Eyes Rolled Back
7.Rivers of Old
8.Take The Stairs To Hell

Members

Randy Larsen – Bass,Vocals
Bernie Romanowski – Guitar
Chris “Fish” Harding – Guitar
Peter Farris – Vocals
Alex Garcia-Rivera – Drums)

Review

Take The Stairs To Hell is the first new album from Sludge Metal Heavyweights Cable in a decade and it’s most definitely been worth the wait. As the band have created a highly unorthodox and different sounding album that you would expect from this legendary band. Cable have always been known to experiment with their sound and their previous albums are a testament to that fact.

However, this album is perhaps one of their strangest and most enjoyable albums they’ve released to date. A mixture of Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, Stoner Metal and Hardcore Punk sounds impress from the very start.

The songs contained on the album vary in length, with some lasting around thirty seconds or so. The first opening songs – Forest Dream (Intro), It Cost Me Everything and Black Medicine – offer a bleak insight to the heavy sludge grooves that Cable have created for this album. The vocals are good as ever and have a quite a passionate feel to them even with the raw sounding production contained on the album.

The lyrics are equally unforgiving especially on It Cost Me Everything and Black Medicine. The overall mood of the album becomes gloomier and that leads to some of the heaviest and harshest riffs contained on the album. Add strands of Psychedelic Rock/Metal and Cable have captured some of the most heartfelt sounds of their legendary career.

Take The Stairs To Hell does allow Cable to play epic sounding moments of Psychedelic Sludge/Stoner Rock and it’s good to see a different side to Cable. Black Medicine is perhaps the best song on the album as it shows you the different sides of Cable and how creative the band can actually be with their music.

The rest of the album sees Cable treating the listener to a wide array of different sounds and ideas with the experimental style of Sludge Metal the band play on songs such as: Low Man, Eyes Rolled Back, Rivers Of Old and Come Home (Outro).

Take The Stairs To Hell is superbly produced and allows the album to be perhaps the most truthful album released this year with Cable adding a deep rooted Punk Rock influence and hard-hitting social conscience to their music.

My only complaint with the album is it’s too short running under thirty minutes and I wanted this album to be on slightly longer. Though, we should celebrate that we finally have a new album from Cable and this is an album worth celebrating.

Overall, Take The Stairs To Hell is a genuinely exciting and hard hitting album that leaves you wanting more. This is one of the best albums that Cable have released in years.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Perfect World PR for the promo. Take The Stairs To Hell will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Translation Loss Records from July 26th 2019.

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