Review Summary: While The Body may still be searching for its soul on this first album, they take us on quite the ride to find it
For over 2 decades now,
The Body has been staring into the abyss and sometimes it seems as though the abyss is likely to blink first. Over the course of their prolyphic career, they’ve made a name for themselves as a band that isn’t afraid to challenge themselves (or their listeners) and push the boundaries of doom and sludge. Something that can be seen in the vast array of bands they’ve chosen to collaborate with, from other metal acts (
Thou, Full of Hell) to noise (
Dis Fig) to post-whatever (
Big|Brave, Braveyoung) to name a non-exhaustive list.
Their self-titled album showcases
The Body in their humble beginnings, there are inklings of what would come to pass but everything is packaged up in much more straightforward songwriting that showcases both where it’s members were coming from and also where they hoped to go. While the band sometimes speaks (a little derisively) about Chip King’s time playing in “Sleep ripoff” bands in the early 2000’s, that influence can still be felt tugging at them as the album steamrolls its way through the speakers. Opening track
( ) wouldn’t have sounded out of place on an early
Electric Wizard album with its freight-train heavy distortion somehow coupled with a certain psychedelic spaciness, a tone very few bands besides the Wizard themselves have managed to replicate. The band takes this foundation but twists it in a way that focuses less on the riff and more on the punishing heaviness, building on a simple riff that they spend nearly 9 minutes subtly tweaking and fleshing out, letting the fuzz and the drone do much of the heavy lifting.
Having set the stage, the next few tracks are decidedly shorter (hovering around 3 minutes a piece) and provide some of the most “traditional” sounding songs on the album, and possibly in
The Body’s career. From
The City of Magnificent Jewels all the way into
The Mother and Tomb of All Things, the band delivers punishing doom and sludge showcasing the genres’ influences in both blues and hardcore to varying degrees with Chip King’s high pitched wailing layered overtop (although it hasn’t quite reached the banshee-like quality it would get to in later releases) and the occasional sample flourish they would later become known for.
The final tracks see
The Body revert back to longer songs with
Failings clocking in just over 8 minutes and
Final Word at nearly 15. Unfortunately this is where the album starts to suffer as both tracks struggle a little to maintain their momentum over their full length. While
( ) got away with its 9 minute runtime using distortion, drone and subtle builds to keep the listener hooked,
Failings takes a more minimalist approach for the bulk of the track which wear out its welcome before the climax of the song swoops in towards the end.
Final Word fares better. In its 15 minute runtime,
The Body throws everything from the previous 6 songs back at you with a few added surprises and, aside from some sections that go on for a little longer than they need to, the song does feel like a strong and conclusive “Final Word” to the album, summarizing everything the band has shown you and hinting at what would be to come years down the line.
This self-titled album is ultimately a very strong doom/sludge album. Fans of
The Body will certainly appreciate this view into the band’s origins and how they came to develop into what they are now. Meanwhile, listeners who have had difficulty getting into their modern sound, either due to it’s tendency to colour heavily outside the lines or simply because they can’t get into the banshee vocals, are likely to finds something to enjoy here as well.
