2010 release, the stellar return of the world's heaviest Indie Rock band! Already touted as the album of the year by Metal and Indie Rock press alike, Spiral Shadow delivers a mosaic of amazing audio atmospheres. While remaining melodic and musical, huge, heavy, hypnotic waves wash over the listener. Spiral Shadow may be hard to categorize but impossible not to enjoy.
Review:
This Savannah, GA-based hard rock band has finally painted its masterpiece
on this, its fifth full-length. Kylesa's use of two drummers (a practice that
began on 2006's Time Will Fuse Its Worth) has really paid off on this disc,
adding rhythmic intricacy without devolving into proggy abstraction or wallowing
in Melvins-like thudding. The melodic aspect of their sound is what's changed
the most on Spiral Shadow, though; the songs are more psychedelic than ever,
with guitarist/vocalists Phillip Cope and Laura Pleasants shouting and crooning
back and forth at each other in a call-and-response style that sometimes sounds
like an argument, and other times like a ritual. Pleasants' dreamy crooning on
“Don't Look Back” recalls ‘90s shoegaze, or Kim Gordon's work with Sonic
Youth on albums like Sister and EVOL. Cope and Pleasants’ guitar work is
incantatory and powerful, rising to Baroness-like heights of glory on tracks
like “Tired Climb” and “Crowded Road.” Those titles reflect a feeling of
physicality, of people making music through manual labor in a hot, crowded room,
and that's how this album feels. The mix is somehow both spacious and full,
with each instrument clearly audible at all times, yet making up one part of a
majestic whole. This is a great psychedelic hard rock album, only occasionally
returning to the sludgy metal of Kylesa's early releases.
All Music Guide – Ted Mills