Heavy has a few different dictionary definitions and in the scope of heaviest bands it is also quite varied. Having a great weight, difficult to bear, borne down by something oppressive and dense can all describe French sludge quartet Love Sex Machine. With fourth album, Thriving, the band has evolved its sound to retain heaviness without repeating the feats of maniacal weight that has gone before. Thriving is a redefinition of the band’s intensity without losing any of the dynamics that has made it one of the most vicious bands in the heavy scene.
With three varied albums previous it is no surprise, yet still sonically exfoliating, that from the off there is a new sense of industrial dread in the atmospheric nightmare inducing sounds protruding from ‘Yellow Is Dead’, a track penned about a dead cat in the neighbourhood. It is raw and heavy with an intensity of Godflesh or Ministry but still with a huge sludge base. As with most of the band’s efforts though its sounds are not worn thin through repetition and by third track ‘The Herd’ there is a wonderful progressive moment of post-metal bubbling through the heft. Often when the music isn’t being as forceful the vocal delivery certainly is and that is quite evident in the middle of the album with ‘Dig’ and ‘Awaken’ offering a challenge to its contemporaries as it still has that relationship to LLNN, Admiral Angry, Relic Point and Black Sheep Wall.
What makes Love Sex Machine so enchanting is that the band it challenges the most is itself. ‘Born Erased’ takes the music to a Prodigy level as it melts metallic riffs into a dance rhythm with snarling sloganeering vocals. The closing trio of tracks follow suit with music that pushes sludge as far as it’s gone and the intensity never stops. Even with the changes in dynamics it never feels alien as the suffocating atmosphere from the sludge is pushed through into the tracks that expand to other realms and even in its lighter moments the tonality feels familiar and weighty.
Love Sex Machine throws numerous influences around on Thriving and manages to make it all work succinctly in the most brutal of ways. This is a band that can find more than one way to rough up a listener whilst also remembering that it is wanting to play audible and engaging music. The real triumph of Thriving is the balance between weight, oppressiveness and the engaging touches of melody and pace. Love Sex Machine just keeps on producing the goods.
