Style: sludge/post-metal (mostly harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Cult of Luna, Khemmis
Review by: Sam
Country: International
Release date: 14 October, 2023
One of the first two writers I got on board for this blog, Jonah, was a huge fan of everything slow and sludgy, and he reviewed nearly everything we found within that style. Jonah was also an unbelievably fast writer, being able to finish a full review in thirty minutes whereas I often take as much time to barely write a paragraph when I’m feeling inspired. We’ve largely lost touch since he left the blog in 2020, so I didn’t notice until a few days before the release date that he (on vocals) and another person I’m friends with (on bass) were part of this band. I do have my biases going into this review but I’ll try to not let it affect me too much and give it an honest assessment.
Let the Sun Swallow All is a sludge album, to no surprise, and it’s beefy as hell. This is no Mastodonian up-tempo sludge with frivolous psychedelics and progressive wizardry, this is thick, heavy, mean sludge that reminds you of the genre’s doom metal origins, both literally and metaphorically, with humongous sounding riffs and monstrous harsh vocals (Jonah’s come a long way since Empire Bathtub, holy hell). They really sent this to the mixing engineer and said “I want these riffs to sound EXTRA THICC. MAHAHAHA.” Listening to Let the Sun Swallow All is like being trampled over by an elephant. But amidst the trampling, there are many different textures of post-rock, classic doom, blackgaze, and prog metal that fill out the pores of this elephant’s soles. You see, it may step on you, but at least it’s a nuanced elephant.
The first track starts with some post-rock meandering before exploding into space as the sludge starts hitting. It’s a slower track focused on establishing the emotional foundation of the record, which is as anger-fueled as it is melancholy. A Candlemass-esque melodic riff provides its main theme, and forays into post-rock tremolo pickings and progressive rhythmicality spice up its onslaught. The track shows a lot of promise with individually great parts, but is lacking compositionally, feeling stuck between a classic AB-structure and an imaginative journey to a massive crescendo. After opening the song with its main theme, Biledriver tip-toes indecisively between half-developed sludge and post-rock, only to reintroduce the main theme without further development, making the part feel redundant. Next up they relieve the heaviness for a proggy post-rock section, but again seem afraid to commit to the cause and prematurely revert to sludge. The crescendo is amazing with swelling tremolos, but it deserved a better build up.
These sort of compositional missteps define large stretches of the album. “A Feast for Rats” and “Hollow Be Thy Name” are exercises in crushing violence and raw adrenaline that largely do away with the experimentation, but lack satisfying conclusions despite their straightforward nature, with the former doing an unnecessary momentum sink in the form of an overlong doomy breakdown at the end, and the latter being generally haphazardly structured as it stitches one face-melting riff onto the next without a thread to latch onto. Fortunately, “Dying Embers” is much better, building around a central theme and finally managing to naturally incorporate outside influences. It’s got interesting proggy rhythms, delicious blackgaze leads, and even a nifty guitar solo that leads into the best crescendo of the album so far. However this time, issues lie with the mixing. Biledriver put all their stock into sounding as heavy as possible, but left little room behind a wall of crushing riffs, pounding drums, and monstrous harsh vocals for the other instruments to shine. Nearly every melodic aspect of the album got buried, the bass’ incredible tone is inaudible outside of the most quiet parts, and I didn’t even notice the whispered vocals roughly a minute into “Dying Embers” until my seventh listen.
On a positive note though, the title track closer is actually fantastic, fixing everything I’ve been complaining about (well, besides the mixing). Instead of prematurely reverting back to monster sludge like in their other songs, they let each idea fully develop, and add some much needed contrast in the form of an extended softer section with piano and haunting baritone singing (why didn’t that come up earlier?), making the crescendo hit so much harder despite it by itself not doing all that much differently compared to earlier songs.
Let the Sun Swallow All shows a lot of promise. There are more nasty riffs than I care to count, and the experimentation gives them a unique edge over similar projects. If Biledriver can learn to more cohesively put these things together and improve upon the mix, I could see them creating a real gem in the future.
Recommended tracks: Dying Embers, Let the Sun Swallow All
You may also like: Lord Dying, Bison
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Independent
Biledriver is:
– Jonah Robertson (vocals)
– Taylor Batory (guitars, synths)
– Lily Shapcott (rhythm guitars [track 2], production)
– Jonas Martling (bass)
– Jonatan Edqvist (drums)
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