By Jonathan Smith
The description “stoner doom” fits the sounds found on Oregon-based band Yob’s The Great Cessation. Never in a rush to get anywhere, the musical textures swirl and float around like leaves and litter on a windy day, taking a long time to finally settle. Opening track “Burning The Altar” sets the instrumental tone, and “The Lie That is Sin” allows vocalist Mike Scheidt to work his voice into the greater groove of things. His singing is an intriguing brand of clean-sounding, almost nasally, tones, but with just enough rougher areas to give himself to give himself a broad range. The album as a whole feels like it builds up to the title track, and “The Great Cessation” is a monster that is well worth the wait. Starting with quiet, effects-heavy chords, the song builds up a massive crescendo with a cathartic vibe that fulfills all the promises made by the shorter teasings of the earlier tracks. It’s well worth the wait, and while it can be listened to as an epic on its own, it works best as a payoff following the warm-ups offered by the first two-thirds of the album’s hour-long running time. The Great Cessation is well-deserving of the focus and effort it asks of its listeners.
(Profound Lore)
