Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Kylesa
Label: Season Of Mist
Release: 2010
Runtime: 40:11
Rating: 4.9/5
The thunder of this Georgia metal quintet, steeped in crust and sludge, hadn’t even finished rolling out of the static crackle of Static Tension before they launched into a new assault! Kylesa are one of those children of the new millennium who have dug themselves so deep into our subconscious that it feels like far more than ten years have passed since they were conceived. The band’s name comes from the Buddhist term kilesa mara, a multilayered mental state of being tangled up in a thousand illusions. So far they’ve built a reputation as titans of dark psychedelia, and through the veins of this beast flows stoner blood, hazy with the fog of Black Sabbath, Black Flag and early Pink Floyd, with a fair few metal filings swimming in it since day one.
This album is their fifth, and in its approach it stays loyal to raw, bare guitars and a grunge-tinged take on psychedelia, plus a thoroughly post-metal, swampy, squelchy ambience. Spiral Shadow goes a step further and serves up a set of eleven of the freshest, most balanced tracks from the Kylesa vault. Hypnotic, flowing guitars dominate, drawing their warm sound from analog gear. After the floating opener Tired Climb, the record drifts into totally unexpected waters of seemingly psychedelic wandering, but with a clear, punchy shade of full-bodied aesthetics. The riffs of founding guitar duo Philip Cope and Laura Pleasants still sound honest and fresh in their sludgy experimentation, and not for a second do the vocal duels between the two lead voices or the sinister, hellishly minimalist backing throw you off. The drums groan primally and not at all kitschily under the blows of new member Tyler Newberry, while Carl McGinley’s kit delivers the counterpunch from the left, and under it all Corey Barhorst’s fuzz-soaked bass melts into one solid wall of impact. The tectonics of Cheating Synergy confirm the organic connection and unbreakable bond between all spheres of this multiple consciousness. There’s no shortage of empirical proof that the guys and the gal are capable of both simplifying and slowing down the kaleidoscopic stream of shadows from their subconscious. The intoxicatingly hypnotic, mellow title track Spiral Shadow shows it best, and the immortal Kyuss would have every right to be proud of it, as would they of the deceptive drunkenness of Dust. There’s no less joy in the quickened pulse of Drop Out or Crowded Road, which sound like a herd of elephants rolling across a dusty dirt road, or at least a convoy of heavy armored vehicles. Poisonously good and tuned in true Pixies style, Don’t Look Back floods you with a feeling of post-grunge happiness, while Distance Closing In brings dreamy touches of vast, spacey expanse.
Personal favorites aren’t in short supply. Neither is the good, deep musical diction that empties your lungs and fills your soul with every bar you hear. The door to the future is wide open, and Kylesa can finally boast that they’ve poured the full masterful breadth of their musical output onto the studio canvas without suffocating the music! The sense that there’s something monstrously exceptional in the Georgia water or air gets more confirmation with every record. Alongside Mastodon, carve the name Kylesa into a granite obelisk, the name of a band that will undoubtedly keep forging me(n)tal iron and steering the untamed streams of divinely inspired metal for many happy years to come. The musical world has more and more quality defenders of quality, and the prophets of fresh sounds have more fanatical believers by the minute. And it would be right for the world to keep spinning in this direction, until the end of its days and the final act of the inevitable cataclysm!
Lineup
Phillip Cope – vocals, guitars
Laura Pleasants – vocals, guitars
Corey Barhorst – bass, vocals, keyboards
Carl McGinley – drums, percussion
Tyler Newberry – drums, percussion
Production
Phillip Cope
Tracklist
1. Tired Climb
2. Cheating Synergy
3. Drop Out
4. Crowded Road
5. Don’t Look Back
6. Distance Closing In
7. To Forget
8. Forsaken
9. Spiral Shadow
10. Back and Forth
11. Dust
