Narrows
New Distances

Orphans of Botch, These Arms Are Snakes, and Unbroken? Nostalgic for the blows delivered by each of these cornerstones of such post-metal? Served. Mother Deathwish gives birth from her obsidian limbs to the creature named Narrows, assembled with pieces of Dave Verellen (the mouth, the teeth, the hate, the Botch), Rob Moran (the stomach, the Unbroken), Ryan Frederiksen (the left arm, towards the heart that beats in rhythmic steel fractions, the These Arms Are Snakes), Jodie Cox (the remaining arm) and Sam Stothers (the tracks, this monster has no legs, only tracks). The result is New Distances, the missing link between the glorious past and the decaying present, the silence locked in a black bubble.

One two three four: "Chambered" bursts out in an electric regurgitation, the teeth grind, accents shift, voices fill the space with hate, the guitars cut the nerves. "Sea Witch" is the bastard child of mastodonic setups, guitars and snare introduce to a bass/drum voice verse of hardcore flavor, crooked guitar arpeggios to counterpoint and bastardized progressions. The melodies that seem to awaken from the depths of the sea of "A Restoration Effort" offer moments of calm, in crescendo, arpeggiated progressions, silent melodies, almost a loop repeating and opening.

"I Give You Six Months" is frightening, with its post-hardcore opening, the stuttering voice until the ensemble's explosion, granitic bridges of the rhythmic section and an ending that could easily be another song, even from another band, a skewed, non-distorted and sick melody. "Newly Restored" is a wrenching mid-tempo, one of the two guitars is sharp like a sound wave that slips between the synapses to tear them apart, the others focus on pulling the listener to the ground, the melody rate is really high and Dave is pure despair. "Marquis Light" is the metal(southern?) side in the shadow of the planet Tool, with always an eye on the Neurosis satellite, the melody stands out among the stars, reverberates in the silence.

All the rest (mock post-metal of today) is silence.