BSWI first became aware of Black Sheep Wall in 2013 when I was sent a copy of their EP. It begins Again. What that offered was three tracks of doomy sludge with mammoth riffs.  Now a year and a bit on their sound is pretty much the same.  Sludge with a post rock hat on and an L.A. twist. The L.A. twist comes with via slightly screamo vocals. This is not a criticism as this works in the context of the music.  The vocals have changed since It Begins Again as they parted ways with/ kicked out (depends who you wanna believe) Trae Malone and bassist Brandon Gillichbauer stepped up to the microphone.

This album runs at 60 minutes and contains 4 tracks. This is no piece of music to stick on for a trip to the shops. You need to invest time in this bugger, which makes it a tricky thing to review.

Opener “The Wailing and the Gnashing and the Teeth” is pretty darned emotional and Brandon appears to be living every moment and every word that escapes his constricted larynx. The song begins, evoking memories of Taking Back Sunday and Thursday and I start to feel a little old. A grey bearded voyeur peering through the window of a twenty something dealing with the growing pains of young adulthood.  Things get going a few more minutes in and I feel more comfortable and can begin to tap into my own past and reflect on my on past pains and youthful frustrations. I often berate bands for recording behemoths of 9 minutes plus – especially when I am presenting my radio show. “Get to the bloody point – entertain me and get the fuck out!” However there are times where I must admit that building atmosphere and pathos over many minutes bludgeons my punk fast aural food tendencies and demands that I pay attention.  “The Wailing…..” moves on to Tetsuo the Man. Unfortunately it brings with it a sonic squeal which BSW have decided to punctuate parts of the song. I like my music loud so this fucking hurt! Stop that shit! Nearly hit the stop button. Tetsuo is a bit too free form metal jazz for me. Lots of drums falling downstairs and chops and changes. I can see what they are doing but it just reminds me of everything I hated about Dillinger Escape plan and their ilk 15 years ago.

I move swiftly to “White Pig” the song that has been released on the web by former singer Malone as “Black Pig” with his original vocal on it . Not often you can compare and contrast a track in such a way.  The track doesn’t really go anywhere for me. The promise of the opening track has gone and what I feel left with is a collection of good musicians experimenting for their own benefit. There appears to be no desire to offer up entertainment or invite me in to their world.  Black Sheep Wall are described as Black Sludge by their representatives but I can see none of the groove that sits inside Sludge as I know it. There are no oozing swamp laden rhythms punctuated by tales of anguish and sorrow. Just noodlings and music as an assault weapon.  For the record I prefer Trae’s vocal. His deeper tone rests easier in my lugholes.

The final track is 33 minutes monster Metallica. I was kinda hoping this was gonna be a stars on 45 style blast through Metallica’s greatest hits transposed to half speed and with mucho distortion.

I am sorry but I cannot wade through 33 minutes of this. Elsewhere I have read people say that his is the true face and voice of Black Sheep Wall. There are huge swathes of heavy riffs here and the emotion is raw but if I felt like a voyeur at first now I feel like someone stuck on a train whilst someone speaks their Facebook statuses over three different tracks playing at the same time.

I’m out.

(3/10 Matt Mason)

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