Style: Hard rock, psychedelic rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Clutch, Mastodon, Green Lung, Acid King
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 2 May 2025
Somewhere west of the Mississippi and the Great Plains, on a two-lane highway stretching a hundred-mile gap between a remote, small town and an even smaller, more remote town, a red pickup truck and its driver barrel down the road. The sun directly overhead at the start of their journey, they head towards rolling hills covered in nothing but squirrel-tail grass. Our driver feels for the CDs in the sleeve strapped to the sun visor and pulls one at random: Slung’s In Ways. As the truck approaches the first incline, the driver presses play, and Katie Oldham’s acrid roar on “Laughter” sets the album off at a pummeling pace. Responding in kind, the driver mashes the accelerator to get the well-worn pickup over the first hill at a matching rate. That is how In Ways hits at first—with a physical, momentous, low-Slung swagger.
If you asked me where Slung are from, based solely on In Ways, I’d have guessed the southwestern United States—the place I currently call home. The vibes here are thick and dusty in the air, as wide as the open sky ahead, and have me pining for the mountains out my doorstep. In some Ways, this LP is the soundtrack to the lonely drives around the West I took in my late teens and early twenties. I can hear and feel the excitement of going pedal to the metal on some flat, straight stretch of Interstate with nothing and nobody for miles around in the throaty, pentatonic guitar riffs of “Laughter” and “Matador.” Should I drive through the ominous storm on the horizon? I’m “Thinking About It,” and the brooding melodies of “Class A Cherry” fit the mood. The pedal steel guitar in “Nothing Left” has me lost in thought, and creates the perfect ambiance for the setting sun and the quiet world it departs—a reminder to turn on the headlights. No road trip would be complete without a stop at a scenic view to admire the reverent majesty of Mother Earth, and the soft melodies and power chords of “Come Apart” will do just fine for that. With an atmosphere that so vividly evokes memories, sights, and sounds from my region, it’s almost disorienting to find out that Slung are from England, not some dry corner of Utah or New Mexico. Are they trying to mimic Americana? I don’t think so. In Ways feels a step beyond that, as if they’re dreaming it from across an ocean.
Though I can’t discern a lyrical or other thematic through-line on In Ways, its concept does seem to be division. The difference between the former and latter halves of the album is stark, with the front side full of loud, up-tempo, rocking bangers and the back half comprised of quiet, pensive, aching songs of reflection (with one exception in each of those halves). But what makes the shift work—what almost prevents the album from feeling split in two—is the emotional continuity: that sense of movement from outside to inside, from memory to nostalgia, from the road under your tires to the thoughts in your head as you coast with the cruise control and admire the view.
Katie Oldham’s vocals are In Ways’ motor. She doesn’t dominate every track, but when she cuts loose, you can feel a tingle up your spine. Her raw delivery on “Laughter” sets the tone early, with a visceral yell that tears the record open like a crack of thunder. But her most stunning moment comes on a softer (and my favorite) track, “Heavy Duty,” where she holds back for almost the entire song. That restraint makes room for the other elements to do the emotional lifting: a bending guitar melody that makes my soul yearn, a subtly melodic bass line humming beneath the surface, and that pedal steel guitar painting an aural sunset on the soundscape. Then, in the closing moments of the song, Oldham belts the final chorus with a force and vibrato that could echo across valleys, making the hair on my arms stand up straight. Her voice doesn’t just carry the songs; it marks turning points in them. It’s less of a spotlight and more of a flare, briefly lighting up everything around it.
Still, for all its emotional resonance, the back half of In Ways merges indistinctly. Once the record passes the midpoint mile marker, the dynamic range narrows, and the tempos and textures begin to blur as each song becomes less unique than the one before it. The sighing pedal steel from “Heavy Duty” isn’t breathing any differently on “Falling Down” or the title track; nor do the plaintive, slightly distorted power chords from the guitar tell me a different story between “Limassol” and “Nothing Left.” For this reason, the division of the two musical personalities on this LP doesn’t entirely work. If the songs had been sequenced differently, I wonder if I would have even noticed—I certainly wouldn’t have cared. So, even though there’s something to enjoy in all of the tracks, on repeat listens, a few become skippable due to a lack of variety.
And yet, there’s a cumulative power to In Ways’ structure, a gradual letting off the gas and a waxing clarity that gives way to an emotional pull inward. By the time the final notes of “Falling Down” fade out, In Ways has completed a transformative journey. It starts in a storm and ends in the silence after. There may not be a map in the liner notes, no specific concept to decode, but the drive is one I’d be glad to make again. Though I’m not sure exactly where we started, for me, it feels like coming home.
Recommended tracks: Heavy Duty, Collider, Nothing Left
You may also like: Sergeant Thunderhoof, Howling Giant, Calyces, Pryne, Vokonis
Final verdict: 7/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram
Label: Fat Dracula Records – Official Website
Slung is:
Katie Oldham – vocals
Ali Johnson – guitar
Ravi Martin – drums
Vlad Matveikov – bass
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