Sludge/ drone experiments anyone? Well I’m always up for a bit of that. You know, hitting one note every fifteen seconds is hard to do well and some use it to hide shortcomings. Thankfully Swedish lot Switchblade, a core of Tim Bertilsson and Johan Folksson rounded out by friends with a background in a variety of respected bands like Opeth, Kongh and Katatonia, have way more talent to them than that. They have been patiently going since 1997, releasing albums only titled by their years but yes it has taken until [2012] for us to cross paths.

This one is split into three movements of downtuned predominantly instrumental sludge with keyboards adding the organ drone. The key to this kind of stuff for me is either trance-like submersion or intensity nailed focus. The third movement comes closest to the latter with some metallic pounding and distorted, growled vocals, the second movement closest to the former with some stretched out quiet. The first movement, though begins with something shockingly like true doom before passing through the doom/ death blender into sludge. Tightly played, well executed but I can’t help feeling regret when for me it slides into the realm of simply being there. There are passages where it almost nails me back to the focus: Midway through the first movement some truly excellent, sinister vocals rise, fall and prowl around the periphery as a hypnotic beat takes shape, but these moments are never quite enough to maintain an intensity or anv atmosphere. It slips away again.

The problem is that apart from any journalistic failings of mine, if this style of music fails to grab you there are precious few things to hold onto to explain why. Sludge/drone creates a void or a cavern within which the minimalistic stylings or the slow winding pressure and repression create the sometimes almost imperceptible patterns upon which hang the atmosphere and the feel. This means that even by most music standards this is an intensely personal effect and this album simply does not allow me in. I find it lacking in density and, until the excellent vocals are used, lacking in intensity too. l like the use of keyboards but still I evade their pull.

Clearly fine, serious musicians with a clear idea of what they want, so if you do like this genre then maybe you will find more. Me? I’ll have to move on through I’m afraid.

(5/10 Gizmo)

http://www.switchblade.se