Hardcore merchants Shrine produced a couple of promising demos and have been touring Europe with their brand of Converge-meets-sludge musical compound which, from the evidence, all sounds ideal for the live circuit. But Shrine is no more (too many other bands called Shrine, apparently) and they have now signed up to a new label, re-launched with a new name and are all set to step up a level with this debut full-length release. Modern Age Mausoleum hurls itself into the fray with brim-full of youthful anger while spinning a few craftily made psychedelic webs into those jarring, angular riffs. The most striking thing about Siberian is the undoubted energy they have managed to capture in these nine tracks and providing a balance of sorts between the uncompromising sounds of hardcore and the dark allure of thick, euphoric, break-down sludge.
Even though it takes a few spins to let the band’s progressive approach settle in, the screaming vitality is there right from the outset and impossible to ignore. I would love to be on the edge of a mosh-pit witnessing the carnage that a track like Misfit Opening could produce and, with the traditional hoarse, shouted vocals inciting a bit of angsty discontentment, I suspect there’d be a few bruises to show off in the morning. For the most part it works well even if the various aspects of Siberian’s sound for me never quite seemed to sit as comfortably side-by-side as I initially thought they might. It may have been that I felt as if Siberian were sitting on the fence a little as far as the progressive aspects of the sound were concerned or that they are really just trying to put a little bit more of a spin on the ‘core sounds by borrowing from the other extremities of metal. Or it might be that I constantly feared we were about to edge into pure metalcore territory. Either way, it felt a little as if they were dabbling rather than really going for that cross-over sound.
Personally, as a recently converted sludge-obsessive, I would have preferred a thicker sound that really tries to set your head spinning which Modern Age always threatened to do but never quite got there. Too much fist flailing anger and not enough face melting riffage. That said I there are some great moments such as Birthmark, which is probably the best meeting of the two with a back-beat, hardcore chant gradually dissolving into something which is undoubtedly designed to get those heads spinning. But perhaps I was just hoping that Siberian would warm a bit more to their cross-over theme. A bit more of everything here could actually work quite well.
(7/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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