Wednesday 2 April 2014

Telepathy - 12 Areas (Album Review)


Album Type : Full Length
Date Released : 5/5/2014
Label : Devouter Records

12 Areas, album track listing :

1). {Hypnos} 01:50
2). Saccade 03:53
3). Cystine Knot 06:09
4). Sleepwalker 05:48
5). Breath – Motion 07:39
6). {Deluge}
7). To Kiss the Ocean’s Floor 07:35

Review
 
From its foreboding, meteorological start, which is rich in perturbing, ominous sounds, Telepathy’s 12 Areas has you lured into the dark, like the first to die in a horror film.

For a band on the receiving end of glowing adulation and high recommendations from The Sludgelord in the past, Telepathy already have a favourable reputation to live up to; not bad for a band whose first release was in 2011 (the fantastic Fracture). They have returned triumphantly and seem to pull off such a feat with an incredible ease. The music that bludgeons your ears on 12 Areas just sounds natural to these guys, it screams integrity and authenticity. 

Celestial quiescence offers calm, atmospheric movements amidst the ravenous riffs and skull-battering rhythms that complete their sound.  Saccade, the first proper track, which succeeds opener {Hypnos} are, together, stunning examples of this.  That horror film start, morphs at the flick of a switch almost, as the staccato of a snare drum hisses venomously at you before the first devastating blow is struck. Underpinned by an enormous riff which breaks off into more prolonged time signatures from time to time, flitting between a low-end punch and diminished chords perfectly, it doesn’t take you long to realise that this band has something resoundingly unique.     

Sleepwalker, while continuing on the path of their own marked sound, strays occasionally into a more Gojira territory, coupled with discordant, Mastodon-esque progressions as the two influences seem to battle one another for prominence. The images these sounds conjure up are worth getting the record for alone.    

Cystine Knot and To Kiss the Ocean’s Floor meanwhile possess a sound so huge it seems to engulf anyone and anything in its wake. This is music to get lost in, its greatest form and the juxtaposition of beautiful mellow and hideously brutal passages are executed with a remarkable intelligence. It’s a trick that’s employed in unpredictable ways throughout the record; you never know what’s coming around the corner but you can’t wait to find out.

All previous releases are being offered as ‘name your price’ downloads on their bandcamp; a selfless sacrifice, considering the time, effort and years of painstaking practice that created these records, but one that, you feel, in due time, with the aid of this fantastic new record, will reap much-deserved rewards as their profile blossoms and hoists them from out of the underground. 

The Sludgelord recommended band who call Colchester their home, have done it again with 12 Areas. Put simply, let their music do the talking and you’ll see why this band has a special place in the hearts and ears of The Sludgelord.

Words: Phil Weller

You can pre-order / buy vinyl here