What You Were

I’m a Southerner travelling back to the North. Sludge is a difficult field in which to excel at. With bands like Cult of Luna dominating, and up-and-coming acts like Generation of Vipers looking like the eventual successors to the troublesome throne, sludge bands need to employ pre-emptive tactics in order to mount a challenge to the crown of world’s best. North did not. Their instrumental debut was mediocre, at best. It moved along like a child on a swing, going back and forth but never forward enough to say that they had many any significant progress. One step forwards, two step backwards was the case and thankfully, the band have worked on their lacklustre style and re-worked a few issues that kept them down on the debut. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to write home about once again. I do enjoy the sophomore record, ‘What You Were’ with its nostalgic references in the title and in the typically reminiscent instrumentation. However, the band have failed where so many have previously failed - the vocals. Given sludge’s hardcore and underlying punk roots, the vocals are what was expected. Since the musicianship was a let down previously, I never expected the band to get the vocal department right either. Once again, one step forward, two steps backwards.

What is even more frustrating about this sophomore piece is the fact that the instrumentation has actually increased in emotional depth and thus has become more enjoyable to listen to over sustained periods. However, those vocals, those pesky, pesky vocals have come along and trampled on the good vibes and not for the first time has this happened to me when dealing with sludge. The vocals, both hardcore and punk influenced, have a distinctive death metal style to them, being a combination of growls and screams of a almost ‘core’ sound. Deathcore, perhaps? I’m not overly familiar with that sub-genre, having only heard Job for a Cowboy once and whilst I wasn’t impressed, the metalcore roots were visible for all to see. According to the definitions of the genre, the style was pioneered by death metal legends Suffocation, which was a bit hard to believe at first. This band, North, certainly don’t seem to have any Suffocation influence, especially not in the instrumentation, which may lean towards post-rock more so than anything else, including the typical hardcore and punk references, ‘Falling In Perpetuum’ is a classic example of those post-rock guitars that give a spiralling effect to the soundscapes, winding down a country lane like a speeding car towards the end of the road. Although these guitars are pleasant enough for short periods, you can have too much of a good thing when it comes to North if their style begins to boarder of repetitive drivel.

Having said that, as aforementioned also, the band have a talent of producing some fine moments of the second guitar, which plays at higher peaks than the lower first, which works alongside the bass mostly. I think the bass is sufficiently good enough to operate alone, when its audible. The soundscapes are far too messy to allow the bass enough room to move around comfortably in though. For example, when the vocals are screaming out their incoherent lyrics at full volume almost the entire way through, the bass becomes slowly more and more inaccessible to the listener who becomes furious at the lack of give that the vocals supplement to the other areas of the music. Like a drug dealer, the vocals give the instrumentation what they don’t need (drugs), instead of what they really do need (help). More so than anything, this dealer likes to take and dish lots of punishment around for supposedly incapable areas of the instrumentation. Unfortunately, like a schizophrenic patient, the vocals are suffering from delusions of grandeur, thinking that their inclusion into the fray is by far more important - wrong. North operated, albeit within the realms of mediocrity, without vocals before and funnily enough, without the vocals this time, this record might actually work.

The vocalist is the main issue though as the instrumentation is generally pleasing to the sense. I find that it is the vocalist whom, 90% of the time, ruins the soundscapes that the instrumentation lays down. One disappointing factor after another and the band never seem to learn, despite the line-up changes and experimentation. I think this might be the day I call it quits with North and look elsewhere for my sludge fill. There are certainly a lot more capable bands around than North, who severely need to take a good look at themselves and evaluate whether its working in this manner or not. Another irksome thing about this record - too many fillers! The ambient interludes add even less than the vocals do but, thankfully, they don’t annoy me as much as the excessive vocal portrayal that screams louder and more annoyingly than anyone I’ve ever heard before - though there is some small relief in the shape of what seems to be emo-inspired vocals. Yay.