USNEA - Random Cosmic Violence

December 2, 2014, 9 years ago

(Relapse Records)

Greg Pratt

Rating: 7.5

review black death usnea

USNEA - Random Cosmic Violence

Like most of us, when I hear a 12-minute song starting with a quiet, "ominous," "building" intro (only really quiet), I just kinda glaze over in boredom for a minute and sneak in a quick daydream until the music gets going. In the case of Portland's Usnea (here on their second full-length, first for Relapse), the ugly sludge/doom hits hard, and the near-two-minute intro really does not add anything to when the sludge finally drops (in other words, bands, stop doing that and start cutting to the chase to really make an impactful album opening and I'll stop complaining about it), and the sludge drops hard here. But there's a cool punk-ish apocalyptic overtone to things, like early-period Neurosis or some blackened crust vibes, as opposed to a more classic Grief/Noothgrush sludge or Cathedral/Sabbath doom. There's just no hope anywhere in sight on this four-song (57-minute, mind you) album, the "serious" spoken vocals not quite working, but the other vocals (screamy sludge guy, growling sludge guy) all working well, the great riffs working off the killer understated drumming... I love it, it's all adding up, "Healing Through Death" being one of the most punishingly heavy sludge/funeral doom cuts I've heard in a few years, the guitar riff that comes in at 7:11 raising me goosepimples a bit (as does the unexpected grinding that comes mid-way through the title track) which is precisely why I go to this kind of music. (As an aside, anyone else noticing Relapse beginning to rule again after a few years of slumber?)



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