SUMAC – What One Becomes

In this post-ISIS (the band, the band) world where can a guy go to get noisy, angular, heavy, dense, apocalyptic hardcore/metal? That isn’t boring? Few bands provide that, but Sumac is definitely one of them. The group, which features Aaron Turner of ISIS, Brian Cook of Botch and These Arms Are Snakes, and Nick Yacyshyn of Baptists, are the perfect middle ground between ISIS’ Neurosian crush and Knut’s ridiculous and awesome technical hardcore/metal. Last year’s The Deal debut album was a killer (we gave it an 8.0), and this is holding steady with its awesomeness, with the general vibe and intensity taken up a notch. Opener “Image Of Control” is weird, noisy, and awesome; “Clutch Of Oblivion” features a drum performance that will drop jaws, and a connection between all the musicians that other bands would kill for. 

Album centerpiece “Blackout” (which is 17 and a half fucking minutes long) is devastating in its sonic and emotional heft; this is sludge metal to the extreme, with a hardcore sensibility and a skill level not often found in sludge musicians (I also don’t often find later-era Sunny Day Real Estate homage in sludge riffs, but I wish I did, because it rules here). Like last time around, I could live without all the meandering stuff that fills out this hour-long disc, but when the tunes in between that stuff are this good, this moving, this much of an experience, there’s absolutely nothing to complain about.