Unfurl

Reviewer Rating: 4.5/5

Review Summary: Sludge, stoner, psychedelic rock and even folk pop, fed through the festering bowels of hell.

For all bar about 4 minutes of Deathbed, it's practically impossible to find something that even resembles light. Pennsylvanian quartet VNFVRL's debut full length is a veritable monolith of sludge/doom, largely eschewing anything pleasant at face value, in favour of what can be described as a blackening, all-encompassing horror show. Thundering riffs trudge on like viscous lava, layered with understated minor melodies (which become beautiful in their own melancholic way), all the while punctuated by barely intelligible roars and shrieks. Where the violent walls of sound stop, they're replaced by passages of almost tangible malevolence, or by rumbling, never-ending peals of feedback and decay, all pointing towards its inevitably hopeless climax.

With this in mind, the first few moments of opening track 'Orogenesis' are somewhat surprising. The swirling guitar, phasing at regular intervals, bears more resemblance to the psychedelic rock style championed in the late 60s than it does to the muddy, bilious onslaught of modern-day sludge metal. More interestingly is that this is far from the only influence being brought into Deathbed. The psychedelic phasing is reprised at the start of 'Panacea', and many riffs (most noticeably in 'Oleander') have a definite stoner swagger to them, however cloaked in distortion and feedback they may be. Perhaps most intriguingly of all, the first half of 'Linger' takes on a folky, somewhat poppy feel. Low distortion, uplifting guitars, pared down drums and a rare moment of vocal delicacy make this the aforementioned 4 minutes of light, hidden within the otherwise inexhaustive misery that VNFVRL manifest themselves in.

The imperfect production Deathbed is subject to proves to be something of a double edged sword. Positively, it lends the music a raw, seemingly untampered feel, giving each track an undeniable ferocity; each shriek tears through the granular wall of distortion and cymbal crash like a hatchet. Unfortunately, this approach does come with one significant drawback. Transitions between the quieter, cleaner sections, notably at the start of 'Oleander', and by a notable change in volume, the effect of which is jarring as opposed to emphatic. While not a dealbreaker, a more polished seam here would truly have been the icing on a hard-to-swallow cake.

VNFVRL's debut is, for the most part, an astonishing amalgam of many genres into the core sludge focus. Stoner, psychedelic rock, and even traces of acoustic pop all feature in its makeup, albeit fed through the festering bowels of hell in the process. Some transitions are a bit untidy, and the effectiveness of some melodies are arguably hampered by the levels of noise dialed in, but this only slightly affects how enjoyable Deathbed is as a whole. Savage, nigh-on unrelenting and passionate, this is sludge at a hugely exciting level. - Sputnikmusic