(Wil Cifer wrote the following review of a new EP by Canopy from Georgia (U.S.), which was independently released earlier this month.)
Sludge has reached its peak, with a few bands still carrying that torch while others move toward the other sub-genres rising in popularity. Canopy is an Atlanta band that has persevered for over a decade and their new EP finds the band going above and beyond by reaching a balance of sonic intensity and eerie melancholy.
What keeps me listening to these songs is not screamed vocals or weighty accents they chug into, but how the chords ring out with emotion. Just being heavy for the sake of being heavy is an easy task, but pouring your pain and depression into your instruments and tangibly conveying them is more nuanced. The band has a penchant for post-rock phrasings balancing out their monolithic crunch. This allows for plenty of breathing room for the songs to flourish.
I have always said that sludge is what happens when punk rock tries to play doom. This album supports that theory as the aggressive manner the riffing of songs like “Neurasthenia” carries out its attack on your ears. This feels like at least half the band got into metal by way of hardcore, as it hits more like Converge or Integrity than Black Sabbath. The moody hints on “Shadow Work” find the band allowing darkness to add to the overall sonic scope of their heavy, which I am a big fan of. When it comes to heavy music, I am always seeking out bands who are creating something as heavy sonically as it is heavy metal..
The album’s depressive undercurrent shifts as the songs progress, giving the EP a subtle bipolar mood swing, as the more manic emotional conflict unfolds for “Wound Patrol”. This is where the raw-throat howling of their vocalist becomes the only point of contention with this album. At times they are phrased in a manner that feels more like an afterthought. Perhaps if they were at times screamed with more variance, it would not feel like the same flavor of anguish being exclaimed.
But maybe that is me; I tend to focus on vocals, which are an element these days that sometimes goes almost ignored as they become more of an obligatory human element to the churning walls of distortion bands discharge. These guys are doing more than just stirring up overdrive, as they have meticulously curated eerie counterpoints to the anger.
This is the crux of the emotional journey the band is taking you on here. It allows for less of the song’s weight to rest on the vocals, and the expansive explosion is a response to the more personal inner journey. Fistula occupies a trailer park not far from these guys’ sonic zip code, there is just less crust to what is going down here. However, Fistula employs similar screams that have more purpose and add to the arrangements, where the screams granted the more extreme hardcore side of sludge place less emphasis on vocal articulation, and the hooks are not going to be found amid screams of anguish.
These songs make it clear that the ups and downs of the band’s existence have strengthened their songwriting. Unlike many sludge bands, they can get to the point without feeling the need to aimlessly drone out into a sprawl of sound. One of my complaints when it comes to bands coming out today is the tendency to place too much focus on a sound and not enough focus on writing a song, but these guys have crafted a well-kept balance here, and their more atmospheric side aids in this. The vocals do give a somewhat uniform feel to the songs, as it was the angular riffing to “Clawing” that kept it from blurring together with the previous song.
While the genre might not be flourishing as it once did, this is one of the best sludge albums I have spent time with this year. Even the vocals began to grow on me with repeat listens, as the tormented scowls became an abrasive layer of ambience. If you are a fan of sonically enthralling sludge that is gut-wrenching yet moving with a unique beauty, then this album is worth your time.
https://canopy1.bandcamp.com/album/empty-light
https://www.facebook.com/Canopy1/