If you’ve had even the briefest look at the news in the world of Metal, you’ll likely be aware that Pantera are trending, Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown recruiting Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante to fill the massive gaps left by the Abbott brothers. I won’t delve into the cancelled shows, cries of “cash-in” and other barbs being thrown about by keyboard warriors around the globe, but you may be wondering, “what does that have to do with a review of this Polish four piece?” Well, basically, pending the oft rumoured return of Down, Smoke Rites will provide lovers of the dirty NOLA riff a much needed and welcome fix.
‘Heavy Rain’ starts with menacing sound effects that should be accompanying the shadowy figure of a cinematic serial killer as they emerge on screen, bloodied implement of mayhem in hand, before a sludge laden riff fires out in tandem with a throat mangling scream. From then on it’s hard not to imagine that the band hail from the swamps of Louisiana as opposed to the metropolis of Warsaw as each track stamps out of the speakers dragging behind it the stench of the bayou. In an act of obvious nominative determination ‘Imminent Doom’ delivers on its promised content, the pace being slow, the guitar low and down-tuned, and the lyrics, which are alternatively sung and bellowed, are of the darker side of human nature, and if that’s not deserving of the description of “Doom” with a capital “D”, I don’t know what is.
The pace barely increases for ‘Demonologue’, but that small increment in speed allows the band to build a damnably catchy hook into the song, making it a real neck wrecker of a number, and even sat in the home office typing away with my only chemical enhancement being a nice cup of tea I found myself moving along to the beat; transplant me and the song into a sweaty club filled with the scent of denim and leather and I’ve no doubt my grey hair would have been flying about. Title track ‘Total Lung Capacity’ slogs in next with a dense wall of sound, guitar, drums and bass pushing harsh vocals forward with all the inexorability of a tar tsunami, the refrain of “breathe, breathe, breathe” being an instruction to the listener to stop them drowning in the sonic sea. The all too brief half hour of the album is rounded out by ‘Stayer’ which adds a confident swagger to the mix to have feet stomping, whilst closer ‘Forlorn’ is just that, bleak and mournful from start to finish.
At a scant 30 minutes, ‘Total Lung Capacity’ is an album that demands the replay button is repeatedly bashed, because whilst it is an album laden with doom, it is one that put a big grin on my face, delivered as it is with an almost primal rawness. Only their second release, Smoke Rites have demonstrated one hell of a potential, and delivered a product that should have sludge veterans looking to their laurels.
(8/10 Spenny)
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