It takes a few minutes for the riffs to kick in on Prologue, the debut album from British post-sludge outfit Poseidon, but once they do, they hit the mark. This four-track, 45-minute effort starts off fittingly enough with “The Beginning, The End, The Colony,” which may or may not be a three-parter, clocking in at 13-and-a-half minutes. Once the first riff hits you, right at the three-minute mark, it comes in hard ‘n heavy like something straight outta Dopesmoker. The focus shifts slightly around the five-minute mark, as they throw a little Black Pyramid atcha before the vocals finally kick in around 5:30. The singing is a little cleaner than you might imagine, but it actually offsets the heavy, chunky guitar tones quite nicely. Just before the eight-minute mark, they shift gears into something a little more noise-rocky, with some riffs that remind me of TITD—just ahead of a heavy post-sludge barrage some nine minutes in.
“Mother Mary, Son of Scorn” actually starts off acoustically, with vocals that kinda remind me of Scott Kelly. In fact, the heavy riffs never really come in, as the eight-and-a-half-minute mellow track is a major departure from its predecessor. Fortunately, “Chainbreaker” wastes no time in hitting you with heavy riffs right from the get-go. This six-minute number is a little more meandering, a little more mid-paced, with a couple riffs reminiscent of YOB, but lacking a bit of Mike Scheidt’s bite.
The album ends on an even-more-epic note with “Omega,” stretching 16-and-a-half minutes. This one takes a little while to get going, with the first few minutes interspersed with spoken-word sound clips, before the first crashing crescendo just shy of the four-minute mark. Even then, it takes another couple minutes before a pretty decent post-sludge riff comes in…
And that’s precisely the problem with this album. While it certainly does have its moments, I find that I’m constantly waiting for them to arrive.
poseidonii.bandcamp.com/releases
