THE DISCOVERY

I must admit here and now, I've honestly been a tad wary to even get into this (makes my getting through my ridiculous list even harder haha). But I've heard enough material from Ben Sharp's Cloudkicker, from throughout its history (mostly early on), which has impressed and even excited. I can't tell how many times I've said this, but also important for me to note is my relationship with Post-Rock and Post-Metal overall: I'm a definite skeptic, to say the very least. This is the first LP and release by Cloudkicker, composed and performed by Sharp, released in 2008.

Coming out the gate from a frantic emergency siren, "Genesis Device" slowly, even softly, ramps up to brutal measure. Killer, kickass riff kept steady by a wash of blast beats. All in all, just a great opener. It seamlessly goes into the next, "Dysphoria", said riff opening up in complexity, though maintaining that starter heft. This is reminiscent to me now, in part, of some of the heavier material by early And So I Watch You From Afar, though its Post-Rock simplicity and direction is more in line with other contemporaries Russian Circles (maybe some day I'll rectify my distance and relationship with this latter band, at least). Here, on "Dysphoria", Ben shows off his drumming chops, and the production style of spacy, ethereal string-like keys throughout is revealed. As with much Post-Rock, I did feel this song, even with all its strengths, dragged on by minute 3. We get a modification to that riff, which I think is quite cool in general, on "Avalanche". There's still that grit and groove from before (not let up since "Genesis"), but there's some real interest in the spicy chords selected. Compositionally, we get more going on here than before, but only so much. I do have to mention again his aptitude as a master of rhythm. We get a very classic Metal riff approaching minute 4, which I quite liked.

As the "Avalanche" seemingly quite literally ended, quietness morphs into the intro of "Everything's Mirrors". Its function, I'm now not surprised, is simple interlude. "Welcome-to-the-Machine"-esque clanging sounds off "Viceroy". More open riffs here. Slight shift post-blast-beat to a bigger sound before returning to its thematic riff. The guitar effects and tone used on "Segue:" immediately reminded me of some material off a favorite of mine, Katil Dans (released that same year in 2008) by Turkish Art-Rock-meets-Alt-Metal band Çilekeş (I recommend "Akrep", the excellent "Diril", and the beautiful "Sinir"). This second interlude reveals itself to have more electronic roots. Weakest thus far unfortunately. We then get our title track, "The Discovery", and as the longest of the album at 8 minutes, it is a return to the heaviness from before. There's certainly an interesting mix here, the more ethereal elements from any keyboards, though perhaps also just super intense reverb on a guitar, are more present here than at any point before. It's thoroughly pretty heavy, like I said, but nothing really happens: to me, an unfortunate hallmark of the genre.

All dies away and we get a very different vibe in comparison to what came before in "Covington". More melodic perhaps, it's very of its time. Then we get the heaviest of, I would guess, our three interludes here, "Triumvirate!", which features a riff I would honestly have expected from Mastodon. It's pretty cool, and only lasts a minute before our final track, "States". This track then has a very cool main riff, totally unlike but reminiscent most to "Avalanche", following Sharp's exploration of what I felt was a sort of theme to The Discovery starting at the beginning, with "Genesis Device". The focus shifts away from the brutality and we get a soft build from more quiet. I definitely was hoping for more, especially with this closer.

True Rate: 2.75/5.00

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