Sometimes you have this horrible feeling that when an album arrives and is shoved in the CD player, you know it’s not going to be as good as you liked. Doubly so with Kylesa. In my personal list of 2009, ‘Static Tensions’ came only third to the releases from Mastodon and Baroness (although coming behind ‘Crack The Skye’ would be no shame for any band). And as a quick browse of their back catalogue shows, ‘Static Tensions’ may well prove to be their career high point.
Don’t be dispirited by reading the above though, because while ‘Spiral Shadow’ may not match its predecessor, any right thinking metal fan will enjoy Kylesa’s psychedelic take on the sludge genre, and that tendency is ever more pronounced on ‘Spiral Shadow’. There’s also a few surprises lurking in the grass: ‘Don’t Look Back’ is rather more mainstream sounding, bringing to mind post-hardcore sensibilities with a nagging guitar line running through it and incessant mantra of “keep moving/don’t look back”. It’s this theme of movement and distance, presumably brought on by their relentless touring schedule that dominates the theme of this album. There’s a sense of cramped conditions, a feeling heightened by the sonic proximity of two drummers sitting elbow-to-elbow, and very very large sounding guitars crowding out amongst each other.
In a sense, writing second-hand editions of ‘Scapegoat’ or ‘Insomnia For Months’ would have been a fool’s errand. In this sense, ‘Spiral Shadow’ reminds one of their earlier periods, although with the tight discipline you’d expect from a hard-touring band. And they always have their surprises: alongside the aforementioned ‘Don’t Look Back’, there’s the Black Flag-influenced ‘Back And Forth’, or the more gothic metal-tinged ‘Dust’. But for the main meat of the album, it’s tracks like ‘Cheating Synergy’ that will remain the heart of Kylesa’s sound: a pounding fuzz-filled reminder of everything that is good and true about Kylesa, which is only just outdone by ‘Drop Out’ in the sludgey mindfuck stakes.
Taken as a whole, ‘Spiral Shadows’ is still a good record, with ‘Crowded Road’ sure to be a live standout, with a particularly intense drum passage and reverb heavy Eastern guitar lead and a finale that’s so moronically swampy that using the word “riff” to highlight it sounds almost inadequate.
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