A distant war-horn, a call to arms which almost feels like a decoy, as the listener is greeted by the sonic equivalent of sneaking up behind them and bludgeoning their face with the nearest heavy, preferably jagged, object. A gradually intensifying whine, advances into the kind of slow, blood-thirsty riff that tears out your eyes and shits in the sockets, born in the black depths of some cavernous waste.
And then: serenity. It’s like it never happened, as if the eardrums just been dropped into a blissful pool of serenity and sank straight to the bottom. All before the two minute mark.
Needless to say, I’m instantly impressed.
Bristol based Metal merchants SONANCE’s debut record, Like Ghosts, is one part schizophrenic Sludge/Stoner/Doom behemoth, one part Drone soundscape (with a monstrous conclusion). Literally. The album is split into two tracks, titled SIDE A and SIDE B (strongly hinting at a vinyl release (hopefully) in the future), each with it’s own multiple-personality disorder.
SIDE A is the heavier and most multi-faceted of the two and showcases the band’s penchant for dynamics, leaping between extremes at the drop of a hat yet always remaining cohesive. Pulverising one minute, tranquil the next, but consistently original, keeping the listener captivated throughout.
At over 22 minutes, one could be forgiven for imagining a whole heap of ideas thrown haphazardly together, but nothing could be further from the truth. This is clearly one piece; one journey from start to end; one epic exploration through the most harsh, brutal and beautiful aspects of extremity.
Switching to SIDE B (if you mimic turning a record over, it makes more sense) listeners are greeted with a growing, brooding drone a-la masters of the genre SUNN O))). And like all good tracks in the style, SIDE B demands your finest headphones and the dial turned firmly to Insanely Loud.
The beauty is in the details, as what may (to the untrained ear) seem like 15 minutes of someone raising and lowering the volume on a single note is actually a rich, dense, atmospheric soundscape, hypnotic in its simplicity. Then, for good measure, 6 minutes of pure sludge pounding; the antithesis of the deep, bleak drone that came before, but it’s an excellent way to end.
Like Ghosts is available now through their Bandcamp page.
Words by Eóin Boylan.
