Release Date: September 22nd 2023. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD
Guided By The Second Sun - Tracklisting
1.Shaman 07:14
2.Cyclone Coming 06:03
3.Merchants Of Grief
Members
Alex Araya - Guitar, vocals
Brian Scheid - Bass
NJ Borreta - Vocals
Keith Sherwin - Guitar
Greg Carvalho - Drums
Review:
Doom/Sludge/Post-Metallers Spook The Beast new EP Guided By The Second Sun sees the band remain within the gloomy post-metallic wastelands first heard on their 2021 debut EP Where All Things Die. This time round the album has a more surreal and clever style of Ambient Metal that opens up Spook The Beast to heavier possibilities with influences ranging from Deftones, ISIS, Neurosis and Mastodon but with perhaps a more aggressive and doomed out way which comes shining through the most on excellent opening track Shaman.
Shaman does have a more cerebral feeling within the intense and crazed vocals that’s made more powerful by the superb lyrics held within the song. The amount of Psychedelic Sludge and Post-Metal beatdowns towards the end of the song is what impressed me the most. As Spook The Beast play a multitude of different styles which always stay on the right side of the “DOES IT DOOM” category.
Second track Cyclone Coming and sees brief glimpses of electronic and industrial beats being added for a more experimental style of music whilst still retaining a cautious melodic approach. There’s a gloomy Alt-Metal/Electronica driven sound that sees Spook The Beast perhaps moving into Crust Punk or Hardcore Punk mostly on Cyclone Coming which is played at a ferocious breakneck pace. Spook The Beast even finds time to play some wonderful riff-centric sludgy within that track alone. You can even detect traces of Groove and Thrash Metal that shows the listener there’s more about Spook The Beast’s music that you would initially expect.
The final track Merchants Of Grief is a slow-paced track that is mostly driven by Drone based Ambient/Post-Metal sounds. This isn't the heaviest track here but it's perhaps the gloomiest track on the EP. As it's full of intricate beats and sludgy sounds that has a dark sense of coldness and paranoia around them and that's quite hard to do when relying on music alone. Spook The Beast quietly, confidently and triumphantly ride away into the darkness.
Guided By The Second Sun is aggressive, challenging and superbly refreshing and this is the type of EP that Spook The Beast can make themselves more known within the Doom/Sludge/Post-Metal underground scene.
Excellent and Highly Recommended.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to C Squared Music for the promo.
Links
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