ATMA

If their preceding album inspired me to terms like 'post-metal', 'experimental' and 'psych', Yob have very much returned to in-your-face doom-metal here, meaning 'MoR'-type Black Sabbath that gets further slowed down to a sludge pace, with nasal Ozzy-type crying and a dry, almost low-fi, garage sound reminding of Kyuss.

The sound, or rather mastering, is problematic here, this is probably the dullest sounding album I've ever heard, it's a constant drone of flat mid tones, with nothing in the lower or higher end of the spectrum. There's almost no space or dynamics in this sound at all. And that in combination with music that is also insistingly monotonous. No, it's not a winning combination. Quite a disappointment after the towering wall of sound on their preceding album.

The songwriting itself is quite satisfactory, it's back-to-basics down-to-earth doom sludge metal similar to the mentioned bands and Cathedral's early work. The droning riffs are entrancing, the vocals are vile, the mood is muddy and desolate, the intensity matches that of Neurosis. Really, all the ingredients for an excellent sludge album are here. I just wish it hadn't been mastered by someone in dire need for a hearing-aid.