Comprised of drummer/vocalist Kamil Ziolkowski, bassist/vocalist Jan Rutka and guitarist/backing vocalist Bartosz Janik, Poland's Spaceslug have worked quickly to become a significant presence in the European heavy underground. Their 2016 debut, Lemanis and its 2017 follow-up, Time Travel Dilemma, were both among their respective years' best releases, and they even found room last year to squeeze in an EP release in the form of Mountains and Reminiscence before embarking on their third full-length and the final installment in a stated trilogy, which arrives as the six-song/54-minute Eye the Tide.
Their advantage has always been a decisive grip on their aesthetic - from the first album on, they've had a definite idea what Spaceslug should sound like in terms of tone, rhythm and melody, and after earning comparisons to Sungrazer early for their heavy psychedelic drift and blend of thick guitar and bass with floating vocal melodicism, they've worked over their releases to make that sound even more their own. It has never been more so than it is on Eye the Tide.
The big difference this time around? An uptick in the level of aggression. Opener "Obsolith" still casts post-rocking lead guitar lines out into the ether, but in its nod under the chorus, there's just something more pointed about their approach, and that manifests even further in the post-midpoint bassy chug of second cut "Spaced by One" before the mostly-chill, mostly-patient "Eternal Monuments," but is most prevalent as side B begins with the slamming "Words Like Stones" and the first harsher vocals arrive. Screams. They run at first alongside the laid back, clean-sung vocals that have become one of the hallmarks of Spaceslug's style, but at 3:35 into the track's total 8:28, there's a sudden pivot and the guitar goes full-on black metal and those screams come more to the forefront. Likewise, the drums take a more intense pulse, and as they move toward the halfway mark, seemingly all of a sudden, Spaceslug have cast an extreme vision of charred heavy psychedelia. They turn to a long instrumental stretch soon enough, but the context has shifted, and when the vocals return after the seven-minute mark, it's both the throat-rippers and the clean singing, but the screams are definitely in the top position, whereas even just at the beginning of the song, they were in the background ...
(Review by THEOBELISK.NET)
VINYL FACTZ
- 200x red/white/black marbled (KOZMIK MAILORDER edition)
- 200x clear/black marbled (BAND edition)
- 400x transparent yellow
- 200x black
- etching on side D
- plated & pressed on high performance 180g vinyl by Pallas Group in Germany
- deluxe 300gsm matt laquered gatefold cover
- special vinyl mastering
