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| #FOR FANS OF: Heavy/Stoner/Doom Metal, Mastodon, Hellyeah |
The debut full-length from North Carolina metallers Bedowyn offers a rather decent mixing of an eclectic style here mixing together a series of traditional metal, doom and stoner rock into a progressive mixture found in here. The basic component here is still far more traditional in base with swirling heavy rhythms and plenty of tight drumming that gives this one quite a fine base for sturdy, tough-sounding rhythms that are balanced alongside the extended, psychedelic noodling that tends to give this the kind of sprawling musical sections that recall more Stoner Rock/Metal with the type of swirling rhythms over elongated passages. This is all done quite nicely throughout here into a pleasing and overall enjoyable ride that makes for a rather promising and enjoyable new band with a lot of potential. While some of the simpler arrangements showcase the fact that the band is still new and haven’t gotten a true handle on their style yet this is a more-than-worthy start here with some enjoyable tracks. Opening instrumental ‘The Horde’ brings a deep distorted guitar riff droning over the reverb-laden background leading into proper first track ‘Rite to Kill’ slowly brings the thumping drumming along with the strong series of swirling stoner-influenced riffing filled with a strong series of dynamic drumming that keeps this changing through a high-impact velocity of tempos throughout the final half which makes for a good opening impression. The title track features a fine swirling riff with droning along through a series of mid-tempo rhythms all taking the thumping rhythms and dexterous drumming through the extended droning style of riff-work into the stoner-style solo section into the finale for a somewhat enjoyable effort. ‘Cotard's Blade’ offers light, melodic droning riff-work with heavy, droning rhythms carrying along the stylish mid-tempo paces as the dramatic switch-over into a rousing, thumping solo section brings along plenty of fine energy into the final half for another enjoyable effort. The mostly bland ‘Leave the Living...for Dead’ uses swirling, droning riff-work and plodding rhythms that take the dull paces along through the tight and explosive riffing and thumping drumming that picks up considerable energy and intensity into the finale for a fine if overall unimpressive feature. The useless mid-album instrumental breather ‘For a Fleeting Moment’ uses sampled rain-fall and thunder-strikes alongside a melancholy acoustic guitar lilting away that ends on an extended fade-out ‘Where Wings Will Burn’ uses an extended, moody atmospheric riff with light drumming that slowly grows into thumping, heavy mid-tempo riffing with swirling rhythms throughout the steady pacing that continues throughout the final half for another overall unappealing effort. ‘I Am the Flood’ features a slow-building series of swirling riff-work and gradual drumming to a mid-tempo series of rhythms that bring the simple rhythms down into a rather frantic second half with plenty of dynamic drumming and extended soloing throughout the finale for a much more enjoyable track. ‘Halfhand’ features a light, melancholy acoustic guitar with plodding paces and sprawling swirling rhythms that make for a wholly dragging and lethargic tempo with the tighter patterns coming from the final half for a quite overlong and somewhat troubling effort. ‘Lord of the Suffering’ features a long, swirling intro with bland riffing and heavy, thumping drumming slowly taking a series of swirling, mid-tempo riffs into an extended series of sprawling, atmospheric noodling with ambient celestial patterns throughout the extended finale for a slightly better if another overlong effort. Lastly, ‘The Horde (Exodus)’ takes a stoner-style swirling riff through extended sprawling atmospheres in an enjoyable lasting impression. It doesn’t really offer up a whole lot of flaws here, but there’s still enough here to make for an enjoyable if somewhat troubled first effort. (Don Anelli)
(Self - 2015)
Score: 70