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Released on October 21, 2014 via Bandcamp
Cold, dank, shadowy and ominous, Gale have crawled out of the claustrophobic depths of darkness and despair to produce a hypnotic record in Vol. 1. It’s a debut that makes a remarkable opening statement, one rich in rigid, viscous sludge riffs, with post-metal like dreamscapes caught up in their chillingly drafty sound – think Neurosis stalking Sleep and Crowbar as they go for a stroll in a pitch black and intimidating woods.
While the band may call the sun-baked sands of Phoenix, Arizona their home, they have very little in common with the warm and brazen feathers of the namesake creature. This is a band eager to give the powerful desert winds that rattle through their hometown a musical personification: A fete they master with a staggering ease.
At 26 minutes, the independently released Vol. 1 goes by all too quickly, in a flurry of atmospheric, earthquake inducing guitar work characterised by their harsh rawness and organic bleakness.
While its length may be rabbit’s tail, it is best digested as a single entity, letting its atmosphere smother you like a cruel yet affectionate mother from start to finish. From the greyscale echoes that mark the opening salvo of ‘To Be Free’, which builds stirring a mesh of guttural vocals riding atop a stabbing, violent instrumentation and doom metal outbreaks, to the clobbering groove and wincing feedback of closing track ‘Burn Your Person’, it is a record that reads like a story. And like a story, this needs to be appreciated in one fell swoop, with each track laid out like a chapter in this cinematic, imagery powerful voyage.
The inverted power chord progression of ‘Unsung’ manages to be both serene and moving while still pummelling your ear drums with bones of the dead. Lurking in the undergrowth of the mix, Marcus’ cymbals hiss like a rattlesnake protecting its young with the thump of toms interspersed throughout like a schizophrenic‘s heartbeat. The song grows increasingly agitated, climaxing with a paroxysm of blast beats, hoarse growls and guitars that teeter on the edge of the dwellings of black metal. The riff that underpins the entire track is huge. It grabs you instantly, it’s catchy as hell.
And so, as the last dying quivers of feedback become a stony silence, you let out a lungful of air. This is a compelling, monster of a record that beguiles you within its mire – so much so that you forget to breathe, hinging on its every hook and black, oily sounds.
Work on new material is already a project very much in motion, with the results promised to rear their beautifully ugly heads throughout 2015. Building on this fine opening statement quickly will only help hurl this band towards a big audience ready to wade in their swampy, wind battered sound.
