Style: Post-Metal/Death/Sludge (Mixed vocals)
Review by: Chris
Country: United States (OR)
Release date: February 5, 2021
Sometimes there are albums where the band seems to have turned the “slam” knob all the way to one direction without really committing to, or fully getting that slamming feeling fully figured out. Gojira is a band that has it figured out; they balance their slamming synchronized sections with interesting chord decisions, great memorable vocal lines, and melodic guitar pieces that weave inside on and off. Sea Sleeper‘s Nostophobia (fear of returning home) attempts to do that same balancing act…but at some point I think they fell over. Nostophobia is an album full of an array of moments where the band definitely tries to slam you into the ground (or perhaps ocean is more apt given the band name…) but a lot of times there isn’t much other substance other than that attempt.
Nostophobia opens on “Salt” much looser and melodic than you would come to expect from the album given my intro. It has much more of a post metal feel than most stuff later with its sparse guitar bends and chords overlaid on on and off double bass bars coupled with doomy cymbal and snare work. The one minute mark is a much better premonition of the record to come, with its slow bent low note tremolos and unceasing double bass slamming. Around 1:30 is where the Gojira esque slam riffs with a similar turnaround focused on pitch bends pokes its head out for the first time. It’s got that bash-you-with-triplets thing going on with the momentary pause for layered pitch bends feeling that tends to feel super brutal. Unfortunately while some of these riffs are quite honestly very cool, there is almost never a moment to enjoy them or get attached, it feels a lot like speed dating riffs for a lot of the record. It really does give a hard to follow sense when listening to this record: you never have a moment to really absorb anything you are on, and nothing has sticking power to the point of being a real motif.
It’s not really useful to do a lot of track walkthroughs in this review, as it would just sound like I’m repeating myself for a couple paragraphs. Very few of the songs have real solid leit motifs or returning sections that help give them identity; instead as mentioned earlier a lot of these songs do feel like vaguely self related slamming riffs taped together. Sometimes the tape is kind of visible and haphazard and other times it works, there is just too much going on. Despite the focus on the slammy riffs in general, there are a few moments where more dynamics are attempted. “Old Guard” has a semi-clean vocal melodic chord section which I found a pleasant surprise. In other bands I feel this would have been a few-times-revisited chorus band unfortunately in this case it is, like most sections of this record, there and gone in a flash.
Similarly, one of my favorite sections of this record is around 3:15 in “Far More Than Sustenance Now”, where from a highlight amongst the slam riffs comes an immediate drop out into a cool mantra-esque vocal part with a far away sounding guitar, an effected bass, and a dropout of drums before they come back with a nice steady backbeat. This is what I wish the album had more of, these cool dynamic switch moments with more repeating lyrical themes and increasing instrumental intensity. This section ends with a dropoff on a lyric much like it teased earlier in the section but the second time it pays off with a drop into another highlight amongst the riffs.
Instrumentally everything sounds fine. The guitars sit very firmly somewhere in the Gojira meets Mastodon tone land, with the bass existing in a fine sonic space in comparison. The drums also sound fine in the mix, but perhaps are a bit overplayed at times, mainly in deciding to blast a bit too often. The vocals…are there. There is nothing wrong with them per se, they are just largely unintelligible in general and the lyrics are not the greatest thing in the world. The harshes ping pong between and back-mixed post-metal growls and those pitched growls you expect from Gojira esque bands. The cleans are reminiscent of Mastodon but much harder to understand and much less memorable in their moments.
Overall this is a pretty fine record, and not something to ignore or pass over if you like the aforementioned bands. It just is a bit samey as an album and not composed enough in my opinion to really succeed. It has some cool songs I would want to listen to again, but the whole album is a bit of a slog to get through all the way. In the future I would like to see more dynamic writing and less reliance on the crutch of slam riffs. Open the band up a bit more, let something breath, including the listener.
Recommended tracks: Old Guard, George Van Tassel, Far More Than Sustenance Now
Recommended for fans of: Gojira, Mastodon
Final verdict: 5.5/10
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Label: Metal Assault – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
Sea Sleeper is:
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