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Epic, is the feeling one gets while listening to the new Northless album World Keeps Sinking. Hailing from Milwaukee, WI this quartet showcase an impressive combination of sludge, doom, drone, and post-metal in a comprehensive, yet fluid and accessible way. From the opening track "Last of Your Kind" to the beautiful and atmospheric "Passage" Northless keeps a strong grip on the music. Centrally a sludge album, Northless does a most impressive job of alternating between the low and slow mechanics of sludge to the faster hardcore pacing while never losing the central feel of the songs.
The complicated nature of these songs showcase the care that went into crafting them. The 15-minute musical vehicle that is "Passages" is a complex and intriguing ride through an angst ridden story; with a mix of progressive tempo it changes into a sweet longing melody that has a few hooks sprinkled in for good measure. As you listen to you feel how the ever evolving atmosphere is moving and how you want to move with it, deep down into the depths from which it came. Northless continues this feeling throughout the album, making a connection to the listener.
Northless are by no means re-inventing the genre of sludge but what they are doing is owning it like few bands have done before them. They do more than plod out riffs, they make the listener feel and they make the listener care. Developing a strong relationship with their sound this album moves from common sludge album to something special and something that needs to be experienced. You don’t know it yet but your senses have been longing for World Keeps Sinking.
[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]
