Over the past couple year’s one band in particular has been making a buzz in Salt Lake City and that band is Subrosa. The Ditch and the Delta is another such band from the same city that is up to the challenge of following in their footsteps. The band consists of Elliot Secrist (Guitar / Vocals), Charles Bogus (Drums) and Kory Quist (Bass / Vocals) and plays a sludgy doom that incorporates many different influences such as noise music and progressive metal. One may hear early Melvins or Eyehategod one minute and the next hear Intronaut or even Pure era Godflesh sounds coming from their headphones. Think of a cake with many layers and the icing on top is filled with heavy industrial vibes.
On the first song the band uses some heavy sludge riffs and combines it with some technical song writing filled with a couple different time signatures. Next add in some nice shouted harsh vocals aka “Meshuggah vox” and you might say that would sound out of place, but the band combines these styles without skipping a beat. Later on, with songs like “We Rust” one might enjoy a post-rock or metal intro similar to any great Neurosis song and later headbang along to another hypnotic riff that leads into a fusion of say the Atlas Moth meets Fugazi.
During the song “Four Spectres” one might describe sounds as ringing doom that crumbles into industrial noise and a midsection change of pace that pulsates and pulls the pace of the song up then down and all over different dimensions. The track also has a thunderous ripping bass sound accompanied by rhythmic drums and very personal subject matter. Lastly the final song “Dead Tongues” finds this band changing speeds a number of times and enlightening the sludge metal fan to some interesting breakdowns and progressive tunes. The powerful vocals and crushing doom are on full display and are aided by lots of echo and sustain.
Overall, this could be considered just the beginning of some great work from a veteran group of musicians that take the music they play seriously. The confidence and skill to create and sound this tight on a first EP should be a blueprint for how future up and coming bands set the stage for continuing down the road of epic powerful sludge music. It should also be noted that this recording was done by none other than Andy Patterson of Subrosa and was mastered at Audio Seige, therefore most fans of this genre can appreciate the confidence in which the songs were created and recorded.
