Review Summary: Cough transforms from a somewhat enigmatic gem in the doom metal genre to a far more predictable, vanilla stoner doom band. By all other aspects, they have bettered themselves, and some listeners will really enjoy how consistent they sound on this album.
I feel compelled to review this album as it's gotten a lot of great press, and I'm a pretty huge Cough fan. If you're into doom metal, especially the more stoned-out traditional Windhand kind of stuff, this is right up your alley and will be well worth the purchase. But I want to share a couple thoughts when I compare it with their past albums.
First off, I love doom metal but the generic fuzzy plodding doom of bands like Windhand, later Electric Wizard, or even Pallbearer do almost nothing for me. Cough takes a big step into that realm from Ritual Abuse to this album. It's much more predictable and much more vanilla. They definitely take what worked from the past album and really hash it out into this full length here. I don't know how many times a wah-washed guitar solo follows trudging riffs overlayed with Parker Chandler's fairly unique vocals...but it's in the double digits for sure. In fact, Cough is really in their element here, with some of their most consistent songwriting and instrumentation wrapped up in a somber atmosphere. This is Cough at its most stripped-down, or possibly refined, but in doing so, they removed some of the elements that really made them stand out and appeal to me.
What are we missing here? Well, the harsh vocals have taken a back seat, which isn't too bad as they were never particularly great. But overall, their more abrasive depressive edge is gone and apparently replaced entirely with THC, because what the genre needs is another basic-ass stoner doom band. The fact that Jus Oborn produced this album really says it all. More importantly though, gone are the excellent buildups, bridges, and kind of more experimental sections of songs that were the highlight of Ritual Abuse for me. For instance, there's absolutely nothing like the ending sections of "Mind Collapse" or "Crippled Wizard" which were some of the finest soundscapes I've heard in the genre, propelling Ritual Abuse into something quite exceptional -- at least by my tastes.
There's nothing like that in Still We Pray, nothing that grabs my attention or evokes particularly strong emotions for me. To reiterate, the whole section in "Mind Collapse" (from Ritual Abuse) after 8:00 can still make my hair stand on end if I listen closely and am in the right mood. There's just nothing close to that anywhere on Still They Pray. Now, we just have slow fuzzy doom metal with nothing really to separate it from the hundreds of other stoner doom bands out there. Don't get me wrong, it's some of the better stuff in the genre and stands on its own merits. Your view of this compared to the past album will definitely depend on your tastes. In all other aspects, it's certainly their best album to date.
The production is pretty awesome on this, with a very thick, crunchy sound that dominates the bass and mid-low frequencies. Actually there is so much focus on this end of the EQ spectrum that pumpy compression can be heard nearly all the time, which is fairly distracting. It would've been nice if they compressed the master less, even though it would be "quieter," so that I can turn it up and get even more of a crushing kind of response. But that's not the modern world of music we live in, I suppose. It overall sounds a little more natural and less sterile than the past albums though, particularly the drums which sound much more organic than Ritual Abuse.
All the instrumentation has improved too, particularly Parker Chandler's vocals, which have always been a bit...rough. He still has some trouble hitting the notes on this one, but he's clearly improved a lot -- a little more power behind his voice, a cleaner tone, and better control over pitch -- this has caused them to process the vocals a little less which kind of exposes his deficiencies a little more. Despite that, it fits Cough greatly and I couldn't imagine them without his anguished dirges and black metal-esque harshes. However, there's still some rough, amateur-ish parts, like the near the start of Masters of Torture where he's all over the board.
That just about covers it. For a stoner doom release, this is some quality stuff, and the riffs are great from cover to cover. For a more interesting, unique release, this is a step back from Ritual Abuse. That's I feel the important distinction to cover when reviewing this release and recommending it to others. If you're not a fan of the Windhand-type stuff but love lots of other doom then you'll be disappointed, even though Cough has scratched that itch in the past. Otherwise, you'll love this album.
