NORTH is an interesting band from Arizona, right here in the US of A. Arizona isn’t in the Northern part of the United States, so the band’s name is a bit of an enigma to me. But even more of an enigma is the album cover. It appears to be making a statement pertaining to the Illuminati. There are also planets and a definite outer space theme, along with images that insinuate religion (or lack of). Very interesting. I personally would like to know more about the meaning behind the artwork.
The opener, “Nihil Novi Sub Sole” is just a short and rather insignificant intro to the following track, “Sentience”. This one begins all smooth and relaxing and I’m thinking some slow spacey Prog-Rock is perhaps on the menu. Then I hear the vocals kick in and I think ‘What the hell?!’ Seriously, this was not at all what I expected to go with this music. Once the initial shock wore off, I had to laugh because I envisioned one of the Muppets singing. Yet, the more I listened, the more it started to actually grow on me. Also worth mentioning is, as the song progresses, his growling vocal style becomes more aggressive and less Muppet sounding. This song clocks in just less than 14 minutes.
“Inanimate Fathers” is next and do I detect just a faint hint of a Southern Rock sound to those guitar riffs? I don’t know. But it is certainly impressive how many genres of music this band can cover all in the course of even just one track. Sludge, Prog Rock, Punk, Doom, Extreme Metal; it’s all there and more!
“Origins” is pretty calm at first, but even when it picks up the pace, it maintains a mellow vibe. That being said, I’m going to go out on a limb here, so to speak, and say that if I was a pot smoker, this is an album I would choose to smoke to. “Pulse” is one of the more head-bang worthy tracks (at least for a while). Tempo changes seem to run amok where NORTH is concerned and the remaining tracks all follow suit.
NORTH is a band that is overall slower, yet very heavy. It is different, at least for me and the best way to describe would be Progressive Sludge Metal with some more Extreme Metal elements thrown in to round it up. Not bad, not great, but worthy of a good listen or two.
Tracklist:
1. Nihil Novi Sub Sole 2. Sentience 3. Inanimate Fathers 4. Origins 5. Pulse 6. Patience 7. Paradox 8. Oo Est Tout Le Monde
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