Style: sludge metal, progressive metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: early Mastodon, Inter Arma
Review by: Sam
Country: Vermont, United States
Release date: 24 April 2020
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the April 2020 Part 2 issue of The Progressive Subway.]
Sludge metal is one of those genres I’ve never explored much. In my early prog metal days I had a solid appreciation of Mastodon, and also found myself digging Dvne a lot when their album Asheran came out. In one of the first editions of this blog I then found Astrakhan, which I also loved. I was then convinced prog sludge at least was a genre I liked… until I completely forgot about the genre and stopped listening to it. This is the first prog sludge album in about two years I’m seriously delving into. I heard someone describe them as “black metal Mastodon”, which piqued my interest. Usually Jonah does these things, but I really wanted to try this record to see if it could rekindle my love for proggy sludge metal after all.
And I have to say… it didn’t. This album is basically a monotonous slab off riffs. It’s a shame, because all the elements to make a great record are there. The album sounds absolutely massive. I imagine they went to the producer and said “we want it EXTRA T H I C C.” From the riffs, to the bass tone, to the drums, to the monstrous harsh vocals, everything just sounds like an Elephant is giving you a back massage by walking on you: absolutely crushing. Seems great right? Well it would be if their songwriting was interesting. Maybe it’s to do with me being only a casual fan of the genre, but to me the songs rather seemed like a riff compilation glued together than a bunch of well-crafted songs. The elements by themselves are great, but it’s just barely memorable. Take the vocals: the tone and power is just perfect, but the vocal lines are just completely unmemorable. I listened to this five times and can still barely recall anything. Maybe if they added some good clean vocal passages and guitar solos it would stand out more with the contrast it’d provide, but now it’s just… there. The lack of good dynamics really hurt the record, and made it seem a lot longer than it actually is. Because despite being only 47 minutes long, I already felt weary after 30.
If you’re a fan of the more monotonous type of sludge metal focused on riffs, then I absolutely recommend you hear this as this band is good at what they do. But in any other case, best look elsewhere.
Recommended tracks: The Silent Circle, Blood Aurora
You may also like: Ergo I Exist, Tamam Shod, Lord Dying, Spaceboy
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Season of Mist – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Barishi is:
– Graham Brooks (vocals, guitars)
– Jonathan Kelley (bass)
– Dylan Blake (drums, percussion)
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