Review Summary: I dunno about the tide, but one thing is for certain: this album certainly will swallow you whole.
Every now and then, in a world filled with mediocre, bland, and unmemorable music, you get a few surprises. These are albums that, for some reason or another, manage to differentiate themselves from the crowd through a combination of execution, originality, and staying power. Solid State metal act
Trenches, and their debut album
The Tide Will Swallow Us Whole is one of these albums. This album is particularly surprising due to its origins: first of all, it was released on largely Christian metalcore label Solid State Records: a label that is well known for hosting a sea of maligned jesuscore acts such as Demon Hunter and Haste the Day. Speaking of HTD, the second reason this album is such a surprise is that it is fronted by former Haste the Day singer Jimmy Ryan. Regardless of what you say about that band's albums, there is no denying that they are a fairly standard core act. But, regardless of the background of Trenches, they have managed to create a near-genius album that creates a sound that is all its own.
This album uses an extremely effective combination of downtuned sludge, ambient post-rock passages, and various core elements to make it such a damn addicting album. As far as the sludge aspect, the enitire album is in dropped A tuning (for those of you who don't know guitar, that is really
freaking low). And, unlike so many other acts that try and pull off low tunings such as this, you can actually
hear the guitars and distinguish them from the bass. The opening riff to "Ocean Currents" is probably one of the most awesomely sludgy things you will ever hear, and many other similar moments are found throughout the record.
As for the post-rock/metal passages, they are used enough to give the album an ambient, dreamy feel, but not so much that it completely destroys the album's heaviness. An extremely effective use of this technique is found in "Eyes Open," a song that is probably one of the most diverse on the album. It begins with a beautiful, reverb heavy post-rock passage that is reminiscent of Isis, and soon shifts into a faster, distorted riff. This riff segues into one of the catchiest drop-A guitar lines you will ever hear, and the song continues by exploiting this combination of beauty and heaviness. This dichotomy is what keeps the album from being a post-rock chore or a sludge metal bore (lol I made a rhyme), and is shown in almost every song here.
The one thing that sets this album apart from almost every single sludge/post band out there is the impressive vocal performances from Jimmy Ryan and guitarist Joel Lauver. Ryan contributes his Zao-like screech, which remains one of the scariest things you will ever hear. He also adds some hardcore shouts, while Lauver gives a smattering of death growls and some cleans so reminiscent of Deftones frontman Chino Moreno that you will check your iPod every now and then to be sure you aren't listening to White Pony. Album highlight "Trip the Landmine," while being awesome in many aspects, is most prominently a completely brilliant song as far as the vocals. The screams, shouts, growls, and cleans are all used at some point during the song, and all to good effect. The song's ethereal, creepy vibe combined with those aforementioned Chino-ish cleans give this song the feeling of a super-heavy Deftones. Overall, if you listen to one song on this album, make it this one: it's all the best elements of the band compressed into a quick and to-the-point 4 minutes of awesome.
The greatest thing about this record is that, unlike so many other post/sludge bands out there, it has
no filler tracks. Every single song on here is unique in its own way, but all retain the band's distinct style. This more than anything else is what makes this album such a treat. No matter how many times you listen to it, you will always want to come back for more. You will never be able to remove those incredible riffs from your head, and those haunting vocals will stay with you for a very long time after the last ambient notes of "Cornered" have faded out. This album may not be the most challenging thing in the world, but an excellent fusion of genres combined with one of the best vocal performances in modern metal makes it a must-buy.
Album Highlights
Eyes Open
Trip The Landmine
Ocean Currents
Cornered
