Review Summary: A monolithic underground masterpiece.
Finding music you enjoy is quite simple these days. It's too bad there are still a lot of bands that slip under the radar. Guess what? Sika Redem are one of those bands. They're based in Conventry, England and are known for melding post-hardcore, post-rock and post-metal with erratic transitions. They mention Converge, Isis, Mogwai, Circle Takes The Square, Pink Floyd and Off Minor as their influences. I can safely say that this is pretty much as close as you will get to the sound of all those bands combined.
There is also an added instrument into the mix. When Tommy Jones isn't unloading his emotionally distressing post-hardcore vocals, you will often find him singing in indistinguishable clean vocals. Even though they're usually hard to decipher, they build a whole different atmosphere by adding chant-like meloncholic spaceyness and a different vibe to break up the chaos. You will immediately notice it on the albums opener
The October Bird Of Death where he uses his voice to actually intensify the incoming climax. On your first listen through, that track will be the one you may come back to first because it is slightly more accessible than the rest.
The other track I would like to mention is perhaps the most colossal monster to ever meet your ears.
Stretching For The Zenith starts off with a nice softly played riff with the bass and drums following to play along to it. The song seems like it's going to be a nice stoner-esque chill out session to flow into the end of the album. This is far from the truth. When Tommy's screams start, everything gradually gets more claustrophobic as the song progresses. Unlike other tracks that let you have a breather, the breaks are about as long as a blink of an eye. The screams are basically unrelentless for about 8 minutes and just when you think the song can't possibly change to another direction, it does. The climaxes are quite quick and slightly overwhelming.
Sekret Redem is placed right after it and slows everything down to let you try to absorb everything you've just heard before it's all over.
The mathy technicalities are also a highlight. They never try to go over the top and just show off. Their compositions, while quite spastic, seem well thought out. To put it simply:
Entheogen is an unconventional must listen for everyone. There is just so much emotion in this album that you need to listen to it a few times over to correctly absorb all the different feelings it outlays.
