Sumac
May You Be Held

For a moment, I thought I hadn’t understood anything about the new Sumac album after reading some online reviews. Reviews that consider May You Be Held the most accessible work of the creature shaped and born from the twisted mind of Aaron Turner. I don't think so because a couple of careful listens were enough for me, strictly in the dark with headphones and at an unheard volume, to consider the album the most challenging, dangerous, and dark path ever undertaken by the American-Canadian trio. I trust myself and no one else; my instinct remains a certainty when I have to judge. I might even be the only one who thinks so... but I don't care. In the five tracks, a couple of cyclopean length and weight, there is a dense, unhealthy, suffocating atmosphere. Sixty minutes without even a second of accessibility; Aaron, Brian, and Nick are tremendously focused on delivering yet another monolithic, pestilential performance of barbaric and blind fury. Apocalyptic assaults led by the strangled, inhuman voice of the former ISIS leader. Post-atomic sludge of diabolical heaviness; molten lava flows of burning pitch. Passages of painful slowness are introduced into the muddy and icy auditory path. All recorded over three years and in three different studios; with the help of the trusty Kurt Ballou for the final mix. The only glimmer of light in this journey towards the dark and infinite unknown is the cover of the work... but I'm not even too convinced about it. I invite you to listen to "Consumed": I don't think many will manage to reach the end of the seventeen minutes... I struggled too, even though I feel completely at ease in this chaotic (non)auditory maelstrom... total, simmering, cyclical, filthy saturation... THE IRON CHAIR...