TIMEWORN - Luminescent Wake
December 23, 2014, 9 years ago
(Disiplin Media)
Fine, Norway, you win: you've managed to give birth to a band who do all kinds of meandering, seven-minute post-things in their songs who are still fun to listen to. Yes, Timeworn evoke all kinds of chin-stroking intellectual Isis types, but in the ways that Isis ruled: huge chug-laden riff-fests that don't so much build as they do drag you along for the ride, filled with ups and downs in a non-predictable way. "Shokoti" shows that these guys love Jimmy Page riffs as much as the rest of us, while "Old Foul Hag" shows they can also lay down the fast hardcore when need be, a combo that makes me think of early, digestible Mastodon. The band's ability to play technical is all over the place, but they don't wear you into the ground with it: they do that through sheer determination and persistence. It's a shame some of these bands really need to learn about dynamics (opening the album with 2:20 of a boring quiet riff before taking a sudden left turn into loud does not an epic make), but you can't win 'em all when it's as ambitious as this. Timeworn win way more than most of their peers do in 2014.
