Tempest - Year of Ash
Runs for 3:20
Opening track and a strong one at that.
Starts nice and slow then practically throws you into the album face first.
My first metal review. Lets see if I can get through this without using fantastically original words like br00tal and other fantastic clichés. Doubting it. I’m also doubting most people who read this that don’t listen to metal are going to struggle to believe I’m not describing different types of soup with my genre terminology.
The wicked irony about this band is that they actually sound like a tempest. Seriously, it sounds weird but I could imagine myself standing in a storm so strong that it does crazy shit like ripping my skin off bare whilst listening to this stuff (yeah I’m weird deal with it). It’s insanely chaotic, fast and rhythmic with vocals behind it like a shrieking banshee. The great thing about it is that behind all this the drums are a mix between Grindcore and more mosh oriented Hardcore. The drummer is REALLY fucking good. The album has been listed as a mix between Crust Punk and Doom Metal (or black metal according to my Winamp player), I think sludge too - so what you’ll be hearing is a good mix of both downbeat, weirdly mixed instrumentals with the same sort of metal opera type riffs that you usually hear with Doom. Then of course the gritty vocals of Sludge Metal/Crust punk – but it’s definitely more crust/doom than sludge I feel. Not that anyone but me is going to understand that. I’m (almost) the only person I know who listens to this shit.
It’s a wicked blend and it’s pretty unique compared to a lot of crust that I listen to which is why I’ve decided to review this. My two complaints with the album are that firstly, it’s too small. It runs for about 29 minutes and leaves the listener wanting. You get to the end track and you ask yourself, ‘Was that it?! Goddamn! I WANT MORE!’ (plus side though it didn’t do what Future of the Left did by making the album too big hah.). On the earlier listens a lot of the tracks sound similar and this makes it seem even smaller (if that makes sense). This can be fixed by listening to the album a shit load, firstly, but back to back with their recently released Solace 7" lengthens it out and sates that need for more of this insane music. The shrieks will be a little hard to deal with firstly, but you’ll get there eventually, and admittedly the vocal style is not dissimilar and better than those used on Time To Burn’s album ‘Is.Land’ which is another good, more sludgy album.
Now back to what I was saying about the blend – it’s mixing two contrasting styles and doing a good job of it. Along with this, a lot of the guitar work seems to blend both doom technique with post hardcore riffwork. I love it!
I don’t listen to a stack of doom, admittedly. I’ve heard a lot of doom influenced music though, and this really seems to push it further than other bands, such as Cursed’s ‘Blackout at Sunrise’ EP and ‘III: Architects of troubled sleep” – it kind of skirts on early Isis’ stuff/Old Man Gloom’s later stuff lightly but this is way more in your face thanks to the crust influence. I’d actually compare them to what would happen if KEN mode and early Isis got together and raised someone’s pissed off ginger stepkid… well maybe not since this stuff is very likeable.
Now the final thing I like about these guys is that they’ve got their album for free and the Solace 7" (2 songs, both really good.) for free or 5 bucks (which I'm purchasing), which is an absolute fucking steal. I gotta admit I don’t buy a stack of music but in the off chance they manage to put together a longer album, or get down to Australia, I’ll buy it. The link is below and you can get a proper album stream too.
http://consume.forgediniron.ca/album/passages
http://consume.forgediniron.ca/album/solace
Ok sike, that wasn’t really the final thing.
Listen to this stuff when hungover. Trust me. The noise will beat out your headache and afterwards you’ll feel like a GOD. Sure, logic might dictate that when your head is sore, you should keep quiet, lie down, hydrated… FUCK THAT SHIT POUND IT OUT WITH DRUMS!
Reccomended for: Fans of Cursed, maybe His Hero is Gone to a lesser extent, fans of Old Man Gloom/early Isis, dudes who are up for some audible punishment, banshees, all around mad dogs.
Tempest - Solace I
Runs for 4:47
First track off the Solace EP. Solace II is a better song I feel,
but this is still damn powerful and these guys don't have a stack of songs on Youtube.
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