NORTH - Light The Way

April 30, 2016, 7 years ago

(Prosthetic)

Greg Pratt

Rating: 8.0

review heavy metal north

NORTH - Light The Way

We enjoyed North's Through Raven's Eyes digital-only EP from last year, and were excited to see if they could harness the best parts of it (very moving atmospheric doom) and maybe not spend so much time on the not-best parts of it (non-songs attempting to create vibe) here on their third album. Well, opener “Moonswan” is the latter, but what do you expect, an experimental doom band is going to start an album WITHOUT three minutes of meandering nothingness? Good luck with that. So once the first song, “Light The Way”, gets started, it's back to the Sumac/Isis comparisons that made the EP so wonderful, and the band seems to have even more going for them immediately: great swing, huge production, nice impact. 

I'm immediately taken back to Hydra Head Records' heyday of forward-thinking extremity with off-kilter sludge/hardcore bands, a place few take me to. So, we're off to a great start here. When the band switches to a quirky “groove” (I use the term loosely, rest assured) at song's mid-point, man, I'm sold, in a big way. Next tune “Weight Of All Thoughts” is also great, and proves this is one heavy band: flighty post-metal this ain't, world-moving doom/sludge it is. But there are melodies, there's a slight hardcore feel to it somehow (hence the Isis/Hydra Head referencing), and there's an increased listenability because of these things. “Primal Bloom” utilizes chilling melodies, angular riffing, and unexpected post-hardcore riffing perfectly.



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