sludge
The Osedax from Leesburg, Virginia is one of those things many would call a dark horse. They are very good in what they do, some people love them for exactly that. But they never gain as much popularity as they deserve. A dark horse running a race against vanishing in the midst of too many releases in a time of too much availability.
Let’s hope that his changes with their upcoming third record “Meridians”, which is due on January 19th. Following the release of the debut full-length “Titans Lament” from 2015, the band slimmed down to a threesome after the departure of former vocalist and keyboard player Josh Albright with bassist Mike Horn and guitarist Scott Caldwell (both were also in Mod Flanders Conspiracy) now sharing vocal duties, accompanied by drummer Kevin Grevey.
Osedax, named after a deep-sea worm, play a kind of very epic sludge including a refreshing kind of song structure. Very often the songs take their time to slowly but effectively build layer upon layer and at the very moment when you would normally expect a bone-crushing, simply heavy riff, you might be confronted with a kind of blastbeat-orientated monster frantically biting at your notions of how such a kind of music functions. Or you hear a doomy breakdown accompanied by infernal growling. Very often you hear spacious guitar motifs echoing from side to side resembling the kind of echo you might expect in the deep sea – quite an intellectual idea and a pretty post-rocky approach.
Through the course of the four songs and 47 minutes it becomes clear that the Osedax are master in the craft of building songs and playing with the conventions of the genre sludge and the expectations of its fans. If you like your sludge a bit more on the doomy side and playing with post-rock ideas, you should definitely give “Meridians” a chance, because the Virginia guys ought to be much more popular!
Thorsten
Let’s hope that his changes with their upcoming third record “Meridians”, which is due on January 19th. Following the release of the debut full-length “Titans Lament” from 2015, the band slimmed down to a threesome after the departure of former vocalist and keyboard player Josh Albright with bassist Mike Horn and guitarist Scott Caldwell (both were also in Mod Flanders Conspiracy) now sharing vocal duties, accompanied by drummer Kevin Grevey.
Osedax, named after a deep-sea worm, play a kind of very epic sludge including a refreshing kind of song structure. Very often the songs take their time to slowly but effectively build layer upon layer and at the very moment when you would normally expect a bone-crushing, simply heavy riff, you might be confronted with a kind of blastbeat-orientated monster frantically biting at your notions of how such a kind of music functions. Or you hear a doomy breakdown accompanied by infernal growling. Very often you hear spacious guitar motifs echoing from side to side resembling the kind of echo you might expect in the deep sea – quite an intellectual idea and a pretty post-rocky approach.
Through the course of the four songs and 47 minutes it becomes clear that the Osedax are master in the craft of building songs and playing with the conventions of the genre sludge and the expectations of its fans. If you like your sludge a bit more on the doomy side and playing with post-rock ideas, you should definitely give “Meridians” a chance, because the Virginia guys ought to be much more popular!
Thorsten
