Planks, what sort of name is that for a band? I know it is getting more and more difficult to find an original moniker but it’s a bit on the wooden side! Bad puns out the way and before you get board (sic) of them let’s move quickly on. Planks are a group from Germany and in the short time they have been together they have already amassed quite a lot of material including 2 albums prior to this, demos, EP’s, splits and compilations. Basically the impression I get is that they are workhorses even if it is my first encounter with the trio
I was intrigued reading the press sheet for this as it mentions as disparate entities as Mastodon, Darkthrone, Alice In Chains and The Cure. Whilst I consider this a fair amount of hyperbole it would certainly have been an interesting mixture. What we get on pressing play is an instrumental opener called ‘Inconsolable,’ and musically it is a heavy and windswept pounding barren place we are pitched up in. I notice that the band like thematically delving into the sea (and who doesn’t these days) and one gets the image of a small boat being battered around by the stormy elements here. It is thick muscular and heavy riffing stuff and it immediately draws you in. The title track follows and we finally get to hear the vocals from Ralph Schmidt and they are suitably hefty, hoary and literally barnacle clad as they roar in behind the heavy drum barrage. As far as mentioning Norwegian black metal is concerned, well the delivery and bombast does remind a bit of Red Harvest, it has that aggression behind it and the sound of Planks is certainly all consuming. I guess one could cite the likes of Altar Of Plagues, and Dragged Into Sunlight here too as the thickset sound behind it all never fails to obliterate. It is not all pitch black violence though as an acoustic break gives time to grab a breath before the surge sets in again.
Songs like ‘Kingdom’ are ploughed out at a cracking Neurosian like pace and the melodic jagged drive with earth shattering guitar cadences found on ‘Agnosia Archetype’ hit in a different but equally destructive way. Shaking you pretty much senseless over the ten tracks some parts really stick out such as the clean vocal sweeps on ‘Scythe Imposter’ taking things to a slightly different sphere from the craggy bellows and it came as no surprise reading between the lines to note they are provided by Junius vocalist Joseph E Martinez.
All in all a solid album that gives the listener a rigorous workout and anyone who likes everything from post rock to riff heavy metal should find something to like here. Oh and there is a hint of The Cure about shimmering instrumental ‘The Spectre’ too. Planks have it nailed!
(7/10 Pete Woods)
Leave a Reply