Sumac must be a supergroup, the most underground of supergroups, and which genre they are a supergroup of is certainly more than the parts its members previous bands touched. A background of metalcore, hardcore and post-metal features heavily with Brian Cook (Botch, Russian Circles), Aaron Turner (ISIS) and Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists). The anger, aggression and fire of all those genres is always present with Sumac but so is a wealth of improvisation, syncopation and space. With four tracks reaching 76 minutes The Healer will continue to be a tough chew but ultimately rewarding for patience and understanding of the magnitude of accomplishment here.
It is a bit of a paradox that reviewing Sumac has become repetitive even though the music is far from that. Describing the components that go into creating the songs is very similar to the last few releases but the output is not. The songs are vast in length, scale and when thinking about it the ability to create and be in sync for that length of time is fairly miraculous in itself. Opener ‘World Of Light’ stands out as being further out there than the band has previously pushed. It encompasses far more experimentation with a lot of chopping short angular guitar strikes, syncopating drum rolls and bass that rumbles in the ground left between the two other musicians. It is probably the track that would possibly cause someone to lose attention but what lies after it is probably far more palatable to fans of the musicians, especially Sumac’s other work.
The rest of the album settles more into more of the devastatingly heavy Sumac sound and ‘Yellow Dawn’ even has some keys at the beginning that hark back to latter day ISIS. There are still sways of an improvisation feel but the band clicks together far more often to really raise the noise. ‘New Rites’ is another great example of the moments in Sumac that I find really special. The churning guitar and bass with battering drums sounds like very little on earth and Turner menaces with his vocal display.
Who enjoys Sumac and what they enjoy about them is going to be entirely personal. The band offers so much that it will no doubt be the absolute perfect cup of tea for some. Personally I keep coming back to be utterly amazed by the colossal accomplishment of what goes to record. There are certainly enough heavy parts to grab me and I would guarantee this will be something else live where the band really gets to hook into an audience. Three very talented people making some of the most minimal yet complex and heavy music going.
