And It's a honor for us to represent ya the fresh beast from the distant lands....
After 4 years of silence and some line-up changes here it comes - the slowest and heaviest concrete mixer in the Galaxy !
-PhillO)))-
With the worldwide doom scene drowning in in endless attempts of
self-replication with most of the bands preferring to stick to the
well-recognized formula instead of retaining the face of its own, many young
bands have disappeared in the oblivion of creative hiatus or simply faded into
obscurity after such a long gap between releases. This is especially true if
the band has failed to gather a decent following on the back of the previous
releases, making the return more challenging. All this doesn’t apply to
Melbourne’s sludge/doom outfit CLAGG,
whose 4-th coming is not only the continuation of the previous glory, but a
step forward to some extent.
Yep, four long years of tedious waiting have finally come to an end,
and Australian finest sludge/doom formation CLAGG are back with the 4-th
full-length entitled “Gather your beasts”- and quite frankly the 4th
gathering of the Melbourne’s purveyors of ear-splattering madness has produced
one of the heaviest albums this fall, if not the entire year to say the
least.
The first listening of this beast left me with an irresistible urge
to take it for one more spin ,as the relentless mixture of filthy sludge
occasionally blended with touches of Sabbathian
doom and at many points retaining
high degree of commonality with the Cthulthu-influenced
riffage of the “Lord of The Deep” was too much for me adopt a superficial
approach, so I simply decided to indulge myself and started the album from the very beginning.
What immediately becomes apparent, especially throughout the second
ride, is the abundance of versatility the guys have achieved here, which make
it like there was no rupture in time. Everything what we have loved Clagg for
is here and straight to the point, without backspeppings or any deviations from
the traditions of the previous release. I think that everyone has already
understood that what we have on the 4-th album is the continuation of the “Lord
of The Deep” era traditions, which even at that time was to some extent an
attempt to satisfy wider audience in my opinion. The gargantuan mammoths
prevalent on “Where The Dead Gods Sleep”
have been given back seat in favor of more groovy and “peaceful” passages,
while occasional presence of more doom-laden parts could have been easily rejected in favor of slower-paced,
feedbacked monstrosities of “Where the
Dead Gods Sleep”. Yes, I do confess to the fact that “Where the Dead Gods
Sleep” is my favorite one ,and simply cannot count all hours that I had spent listening to the album’s
opener “Iron Halo”. Whether that was the pinnacle of excellence or simply a delusion induced by my
nostalgic mood is difficult to say for sure, but we are moving forward and even
though he material presented on “Gather
your Beasts” is slightly different from the band’s second effort, it is
still heavy and down-tuned to the degree ferocious enough to reach the deepest
bowels of the Earth…. Yes, too much blah-blah here. IT FUCKING GRABS YOUR BALLS TO SAY IN SIMPLE TERMS.
The album starts with a couple of sludgy tunes “Five Curses” and “Gather
your Beasts”. Both tracks are
complete with fuzzy distorted bass, throaty and ferocious vocals and thick
riffage, but at some point have a Southern touch to it with occasional “bluesy” solos protruding from the
impenetrable wall of heaviness.
"The
Great Mortality" proves to be a little
deviation from the overall crudeness and aggression of the rest of the album,
with obviously more metallic riffage
laying the foundation of the song and providing lethal dose of groove.
This peaceful and accessible tone eventually evolves into comatose misery ( beginning from 4:30), with lengthy
solo accompanying slow and repetitive riffs.
This song is more representative of doom than sludge, but not even for a
second it paints an image of being superfluous.
“The dream
is Dead “ expand
the ideas of the previous songs , offering a catchy cocktail of fuzzy riffage, hypnotizing grooves and sick vocals proving
that Australian guys still have what it takes to deserve a place in my top 5 best sludge albums of 2013.
And album closer “Pathways to oblivion” is a remastered version from the Clagg's debut album "Let The Galaxy Burn" (2005). It Still full of hate and high energy !
“Gather your Beasts” is definitely adhering to the
traditions of “ Lord of The Deep” and lacks the unfriendliness of “Where the Dead Gods Sleep”, but still has
everything what Clagg has been worshipped for. If you’re still not familiar with Clagg, I could
recommend this album to fans of Weedeater, Negative Reaction, Sleep, Iron Monkey, Sourvein,
When the Deadbolt Breaks.
(Review by Den)
buy Clagg's CDs here (LPs are on the way too) :
