Earthship
Withered

The ship is withering, as is the guy on the cover artwork. A cover art that is semi-cool and the band has changed a bit since I last heard them, the trio has become a quartet and they have of course turned a bit older and more withered perhaps. It is their third album, we reviewed their latest album Iron Chest in 2012. They have done an EP since but I have not heard that one. I think the latest album was fairly interesting and dramatic albeit without a really strong focal point. Now they are older and wiser, perhaps they manage to press more buttons for me with this album.

It is so-called sludge, heavy doomy, growly quite slowish metal, a bit progressive I might add. The vocals varies between growls and some clean vocals albeit with a quite significant overweight on the growls. Reasonably varied between the deep darkness to fairly positive feel. The production gives a powerful sound and the music often becomes a wall of sound and sometimes it tends to become quite a thick wall that doesn’t quite reveal the depth of the music of Earthship. It is an album that require that you give it time to get to know and to find out what it really has to offer.

If I compare the album to the previous album I would say that this is better. It is better on all accounts, more variation, more dynamic and less monotonous. And I would say that it is a good album, not a great album but a solid strong and good album. The problem is the same as the previous album, we get a bit too thick wall of sound making the album seem a tad monotonous, there is something beneath the surface but it just cannot quite get through the listener. Fairly enjoyable but it still feels like they don’t quite live up to their promise.

I have no favourite track on this album, it is a solid whole but nothing that stand out in either direction. There is nothing that draws you into the album, it becomes a bit thick a bit monotonous in the end. Good thing though that the album is short with only 35 minutes of playing time but I think the variation is slightly lost in the fact that the album slightly lacks dynamics. But, if you are a fan of the genre I suppose you will find this better than I do.

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