Indian
From All Purity


3.0
good

Review

by Alex Newton USER (49 Reviews)
January 14th, 2014 | 122 replies


Release Date: 2014 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Musical carpet-bombing: loud and largely effective, but perhaps short on intrigue.

As a rule of thumb, when a band lists Waylon Jennings and Lynyrd Skynyrd as influences, you shouldn’t expect to hear funeral doom guitars and banshee screams. Apparently, Indian didn’t get that memo. The Illinois quartet’s fifth album From All Purity may not sound particularly Native American, but it’s not hard to imagine that it was born of a thirst for Fire Water and retribution as the band rips through six gritty tracks with the subtlety of a tomahawk. Riding the dirtiest guitar tone this side of Thou and a terrifying performance by vocalist Dylan O’Toole, From All Purity is, for better or for worse, as relentless and overstated as modern metal gets.

The blueprint for Indian’s songs is pretty simple: impossibly distorted, almost machinelike, power chords played over incessant drum patterns with a garnish of mid-range screams. That isn’t to denigrate the effectiveness of such compositions – Godflesh’s immortal Streetcleaner relied on many of the same tactics. Second cut “The Impetus Bleeds” grinds along with steam-engine percussion, while O’Toole and Will Lindsay’s layered guitars trade minor-sixth chords and suspensions to create an infernal atmosphere. Bouts of feedback and currents of white noise permeate the wall of sound, allowing songs to change in character without veering from their established paths, though even this can’t spare album opener “Rape” and, later, “Directional” from a sinking monotony.

Halfway through, Indian picks the pace up with “Rhetoric of No,” perhaps the most interesting song here due its off-kilter rhythms and cut-time detours. In what proves to be a theme throughout the album, the song eventually meanders into a rut of falling fifths, though Indian manages to Houdini the song back up to a raging finale without any distinct or sudden changes (perhaps another testament to the band’s acumen with sampling and layering). To the contrary, though, subsequent cut “Clarify” is little more than four and a half minutes of sample abuse, replete with analog humming, guitar squeals, and what may or may not be a dialup connection trying hopelessly to connect to a theremin. Perhaps it has a place, in the same way "Bladecatcher" had a place on Blood Mountain, but largely distracts from the album's slowly building momentum.

All told, From All Purity clocks in at just under forty minutes but is already stretching a little thin by the time “Disambiguation” brings some new ideas via extended double-kick runs and tremolo guitar lines. As the most adventurous piece, it wraps up the album well and nearly invites another listen before simply ending without any sort of resolution (another of the album’s annoying habits). Indian obviously knows how to make a record bleed with unbridled emotion, but there is also a marked lack of diversity on much of From All Purity, even by genre standards. That said, it is an album that occupies a niche in our being somewhere between loathing and fury, and should be worth a listen if you’ve a hankering for some home-brewed Whiskey and Custer’s heart on a wooden stake.



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user ratings (201)
3.8
excellent
other reviews of this album
kvltwalter (4)
Doom gets especially frightening on Indian's latest set of tracks...

PFNPJ (4)
Indian comes through with a fantastic and disgusting display of sludge, but with a few unavoidable i...



Comments:Add a Comment 
greg84
Emeritus
January 14th 2014


7654 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Great review, Alex.



I found this LP quite enjoyable, if a bit too monotonous.

osmark86
January 14th 2014


11522 Comments


didn't find guiltless to be all that, so if this isn't an improvement it probably isn't worth it.

pos'd

Wizard
January 14th 2014


20569 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

Awesome album so far, I don't expect much love for it though.



To the contrary, though, subsequent cut “Clarify” is little more than four and a half minutes of sample abuse, replete with analog humming, guitar squeals, and what may or may not be a dialup connection trying hopelessly to connect to a theremin – and just when you thought there might be some nuance to this after all.



It's a nod to their power-electronic influences.



but there is also a crippling lack of diversity on much of From All Purity.]



Kind of missing the point, diversity is not what this type of music is striving for. It's like going into a doom record and complaining about the lack of dynamics.



Well written review though!

pedro70512
January 14th 2014


4169 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

@Wizard - Thanks for the detailed feedback. I figured that I must be missing something or other, since whatever hybridization this is definitely new to me. I'll keep spinning it. "Clarify" reminded me oddly of Mastodon's "Bladecatcher," actually.



I find that even doom needs some dynamics though -- take Ahab's "The Giant" Giant Squid's "Metridium Fields," for instance. However, if you're talking more like "Heliogabolus" or "Dopesmoker," then I can't even begin to argue about dynamics haha.

marksellsuswallets
January 14th 2014


4884 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Album is so good. Guiltless edges it out a bit. I think their uncompromising heaviness is kind of what makes Indian...Indian tho, diversity be damned.

pedro70512
January 14th 2014


4169 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

"Crippling" is probably too strong a word -- it's still a good album (hence, 3.0). Updated the last bit accordingly.

Ramires
January 14th 2014


4 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

shit's fine.

Wizard
January 15th 2014


20569 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

However, if you're talking more like "Heliogabolus" or "Dopesmoker," then I can't even begin to argue about dynamics haha.



No problem buddy, you have fine tastes in music. As for the above statement, I would lump these guys in with more of hypnotic type of doom/ sludge like Culted or older Neurosis. These guys just crush hard.

pedro70512
January 15th 2014


4169 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Rorcal's new album crushed hard for sure. I was very pleasantly surprised by the change -- not that I had any problem with Helio, but Vilagvege was very fresh and a welcome change of pace.

osmark86
January 15th 2014


11522 Comments


great feature, review is solid

halloway
January 15th 2014


689 Comments


Loved Guiltless, can't wait to give this a spin. Nice review, btw.

DropdeadWHA
January 15th 2014


1396 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Excellent album, you've missed the point about their music completely but still a good review.

pedro70512
January 15th 2014


4169 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Thanks. Everyone has albums they don't "get" (see my review/dissertation on The Seer) but I try to be

honest and thorough. I'll be interested to see if someone else reviews or sounds on this with a 4+ so

I can hear their angle.

qiblas
January 16th 2014


458 Comments


I need to listen to this album. All their previous albums are awesome!

orchideater
January 16th 2014


29 Comments

Album Rating: 5.0

Fuck yes! To me these guys take "Heavy metal" to a completely new playing field. I wonder what Candlemass would think of this album.

Olik1984
January 16th 2014


65 Comments


Love Unquiet Sky and Guiltless. Bet I will dig this then.

Wizard
January 16th 2014


20569 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

You will love this more than those albums. Fuck, I can't get enough Rape hahahaha that song slams so fucking hard for the first 4 mins.



I'll be interested to see if someone else reviews or sounds on this with a 4+ so

I can hear their angle.




Go read my soundoff right now.

pedro70512
January 16th 2014


4169 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Done. I see where you're coming from for sure, and I've enjoyed a number of albums that are both hypnotic and pulsating -- Isis is probably case in point. This one just didn't lure me in quite like that.

Voivod
Staff Reviewer
January 16th 2014


10984 Comments


Album stream - http://pitchfork.com/advance/316-from-all-purity/

osmark86
January 16th 2014


11522 Comments


a 4.5 wiz? that good really? haven't heard this myself, but I can't see it being better than tops a 4 judging by Guiltless.



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