Rwake – Rest

1. Souls Of The Sky
2. It Was Beautiful But Now It’s Sour
3. An Invisible Thread
4. The Culling
5. Ti Progetto
6. Was Only A Dream
We had to wait five years for a follow-up on “Voices Of Omens”, the 2007 Relapse debut of and their final step into the limelight. The record turned out to be a modern classic, with a characteristic sound that gave a Southern twist to a mixture of creepy sludge and doom. My expectations for “” where consequently sky high but definitely does not make it easy for the fans…
With four songs clocking around ten minutes and two intros “” has become quite a tough lump to digest. The repetitiveness, and the overall dirgy tempo make it a record you need to schedule a couple of days off for to let its magic work on you. The characteristic band sound is definitely there, be it a bit less swampy and filthy than before. Also, the strong double vocals (angry Neurosis fan vs. soaring black metal witch) make for enough versatility. Further on it strikes me that used a little less effects so that the sound comes across a bit more naturally and clean, and a little less beastly, which I actually liked a lot about ‘Voices Of Omens’.
The dynamics of the songs seem a bit off balance at times. It is like they used a tactic of brutally squashing the listener to a pulp with repetition and pounding riffs. Only with the last two songs everything seems to fall into place beautifully. Just listen to “The Culling” and especially “Was Only A Dream”, which brilliantly plays with loud parts and softer parts and slowly reaches epic heights. was a band who I hoped would reach that point of transcending genre boundaries into something completely new. “Voices Of Omens” showed that potential, but “” does not fully fulfil the promise. It has become an impressive sludge/doom record, but not the innovative record of the year it could have been.
Lords Of Metal, Jasper
2LP album
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