Progressive sludge? That sounds like an oxymoron. When I think of progressive in terms of music I think of Rush being listened to by some nerdy kid wearing a tie-dyed shirt that is playing Dungeons and Dragons in his parents' basement (yeah I stole that image from SLC Punk, whatever). When I think of sludge, I think of some dirty looking band, playing on a half-broken drumset, heavily distorted guitars, and a singer belting out pure hatred and hopelessness in the middle of a swamp. But I really can't think of a better description for Rwake, a band from Arkansas that has just put out its fourth full-length, Voices Of Omens (and first for Relapse, a veritable hub for forward-thinking metal bands).
While Rwake's brand of metal is definitely of an "experimental" nature, their low-end, dirging, doom-ish sound easily stands up on its own next to sludge/doom heavyweights such as Eyehategod and Grief. The combination of these two elements might make some automatically compare them to Neurosis and write them off as a clone, but if you listen to them you'll hear that they are far from it. There's just something dirtier and more evil about Rwake. If Neurosis is the "Thinking Man's Metal Band," Rwake would be the "Thinking Man's Sludge Band."
The first testament on Voices of Omens to Rwake's willingness to experiment is the introduction track: it's a mandolin solo. I don't know about you, but I'm having trouble thinking of many, if any at all, metal bands, much less sludge bands that featured a mandolin solo.
But any beauty that might have been expressed by the mandolin is wiped away in the next track, "The Finality." The song begins with a slow march of depression and gloom with shrieking, distorted vocals in the background that conjure up images of a procession of damned souls filing one by one through the gates of Hell. When vocalist CT's actual vocals come into the mix, their style of being more loudly spoken than screamed makes me imagine him standing atop said gates, cursing down onto the procession, preaching their eternal doom.
About halfway into the song though the band picks things up with a Sleep-inspired stoner riff, and then changes over to a dual-harmonized guitar section. Both changes however, are quite fluid, and I was not left thinking, "Where did this suddenly come from?" To top it off, the song ends with an acoustic guitar and piano duet. I told you they are willing to experiment, didn't I?
"Crooked Rivers" stays on a steadier course of sludgey-ness without too much diversion or experimentation, but it's done oh so well. Keyboardist B throws her vocals into the mix a bit more, a good balance between high shrieking and low guttural yells.
"Fire and Flight" starts off with another acoustic section, before descending into more doom-and-gloom, picking itself up again for another acoustic part only to dump more sludgey goodness down on the plate.
The rest of the songs more or less take this path of mixing things up, even throwing some solo parts in and, like in "The Finality" it never feels forced or awkward. Rwake is always in full control of their intentions and direction and you can tell their goal was to make Voices of Omens cohesive and fluid. In that they have succeeded.
If you love slow, depressing and dirty sounding sludge/doom as much as I do, or even metal that is a little bit more progressive than the rest, you will like Rwake. Their tendency to distinguish themselves from the crowd but at the same time fit right in is demonstrated perfectly on Voices Of Omens, and as such this is a great starting point for anyone new to the band. When you're done with it and you like what you hear I also urge you to check out their previous effort If You Walk Before You Crawl, You Crawl Before You Die. There's only more to like there.
