Sentiment

The first thing that comes to my mind when listening to 'Sentiment' is it's good use of loud/quiet dynamics. It is a very well-balanced record. Melodic but in a tasteful way. Meaning that melodic segments are not overdone even during passages which might lend themselves to further explorations along those lines. The opening track 'In It's Absence' with it's non-melodic heavy parts, heavy melodic parts and clean passages might give you a hint of what I am trying to convey here.

At times there is a vague Opeth-like quality in the way melody is used. Think 'Blackwater Park' and 'My Arms, Your Hearse'. The haunting melodies on 'Harvest' or the atmosphere of 'April Ethereal' would be poignant examples. It is not so much about the compositions as a whole as it is about a general feel that seeps through the material. Paradoxically draped in a bleak vastness as well as an aura of warmth. The use of space emphasizes this point. You are being pushed away only to be drawn back in.

The vocals fits the music splendidly. Most of the time they are guttural, but here and there you will get a dash of tortured screams. There are also some clean vocals by guest performers. They are used sparingly and I think that was a wise choice. Some bands manage to blend clean and harsh vocals, but as a rule it is a feat that is hard to pull off.

Parts usually flow into each other in an organic manner and the old "Oh, here it comes"-segue before a given passage is generally avoided. Even when you do expect the part it is not performed in a formulaic manner. The breakdowns, which are used with restraint, I would say are in the vein of Ahab if I had to describe them.

Like the natural changes throughout tracks the guitar-tone possess similar organic qualities. Although distorted the distortion is not dialed up to the max and the performances are not obscured behind it. The drum sound is clear and there is not a "click drum" in sight. They are given space to breath and have an airiness to them. The bass is "just there". The Funeral Doom/Sludge genre(s) usually does not allow much room for "Steve DiGiorgio":esque virtuosity. It is a good fit in this context. You hear it if you listen, but the way it is placed in the mix keeps it out of the spotlight.

All of this results in an overall production with a mostly pristine surface. In a good way though. It does not feel forced and you won't find parts conforming to modern-day compression practices. 'Sentiment' cannot be blamed for being a "Loudness war"-album. In theory I probably should not like the album's aura, I prefer the harsh and dirty, and yet Un just makes it all work. On a bad day the cleanliness might get to me. If I had to lay forth a proper critique that would be it. Hypothetically. At the time of writing I could not stand by that opinion.

The artwork is nice and it appears to be seamlessly woven into the music on a thematic plane. The band also took the time to say this on their bandcamp page (at least): "We wrote this album as a token of gratitude for all those who struggle against the weight of their own existence." I understand that this might appear mushy to some, but I find it refreshingly honest. It touches upon the mostly silent, and widespread, issue of mental health.

The album itself might dwell on the gloomy parts of existence, but it does so for a reason and in a, perhaps contradictory, positive way. Given the title of the album you cannot really blame me, or the band, for getting a tad sentimental. There is more to life than titties and beer, weightlifting and Hatebreed, edgy misanthropy and Watain.

Their debut 'The Tomb Of All Things', while good, is a little rough around the edges; production-wise as well as when it comes to the songs themselves. 'Sentiment' straightens out the kinks without making things sounding strained. This is one of those pieces that has left an impression on me. It is a listen I have found to work in most situations. A cohesive and, plainly put, pleasant offering. Why anyone who is into the genre would say otherwise is beyond me.

So I originally got this album presented to me round about its release date as this massive slab of death/doom, with an even more massive James Plotkin production and a distinctly American funeral doom/death sound similar to Loss. Though Asunder is a much better (in every way) representation of that sound. You know the type, with this characteristic, vaguely medieval, Mournful Congregation-esque sense of melody, plenty of guitar leads woven on top of beefy droning riffs that at the same time aren't too slow or too "funerary" (or should it be "funereal"?), and a distinctive "wilting" yet stoic, reserved and pensive mood. And a lot of sludge, especially in the production, with a raw, gritty and well, sludgy rumbling guitar sound and a lot of tastefully used feedback. I hadn't heard Asunder or anything that'd fit that sort of description before this album came out, except for maybe Loss, who, with their lack of rhythm guitars, are actually not a lot like that, but it definitely intrigued me. I mean, I loved sludge metal, Mournful Congregation and Loss back then, and I still do now, even more so, so why the hell wouldn't I also like Un? (By the way, that band name is balls.) The reviews I could find, from Metal Injection, Angry Metal Guy, Echoes and Dust and whatnot, were almost raving in how overwhelmingly positive they were - it's not the best pool of reference, sure, but it's still better than going in bareback - so I just had to check this out.

However, the title track, released by Translation Loss Records as an album teaser, surprisingly didn't sound a lot like Loss. Or quite as awesome as that description above or the reviews could make you think, leave that to Asunder. I think at first I sort of liked it and its leads, halfway between Warning and some airy post-metal, but it turned out to be the best track on the album. And even so, I grew progressively colder and colder to it anyway, but the album itself still turned out to be a massive disappointment.

Why? Well, it doesn't really have anything going for it besides those leads and a big fat production, which would be alright because Loss are awesome and don't even have proper rhythm guitars or a good drum sound, but even its best aspects manage to be underwhelming. First of all, the production, especially on the guitars. It's massive, loud and bassy all right, but... well, it's anything but sludgy. It's so grainy that each "grain" sounds like a separate note, and while there are probably some wild stoner/sludge/drone/funeral doomsters that might pull that off, here those "grains" are so thoroughly cleaned of any dirt and dust that they sound lifeless, synthetic and honestly not a lot like actual electric guitars at all. There's none of Asunder's grandiose gloom, Lycus' post-metal-like enshrouding blanket of sound, or, hell, even any half-decent sludge metal's raw garage charm here, and the closest comparison I can come up with is probably Pallbearer's latest (as of now) album, Heartless, except without the fuzz. I realize I'm harping on this too much and I probably sound like an old man with a bad case of raw-o-philia, but I just can't help it with this album. The other issue I have with the production is the loud, booming and flat sound of the snare drum, which sounds almost like a weird homage to Mournful Congregation's consistently awful snares.

Speaking of which, Un kind of sound like a less adventurous version of Mournful Congregation... except Mournful Congregation already sound like a less adventurous version of themselves since 2013 and still manage to be way more interesting than this, with their tasty acoustic bits, lead and bass work, and progressive rock influences. Sentiment, on the other hand, has none of that - it's a very simplistic, restrained, derivative and inoffensive album that sounds like the band were afraid of breaking any rules or going outside any boundaries, and in this kind of music, which almost depends on tiny nuances and bold songwriting, such restraint means nothing but mediocrity. Another thing they have in common with latter-day Mournful Congregation is a reliance on slow one-note chug riffs, which always make me think of a demented old man without teeth trying to tell a story only to forget what he was talking about and start telling his story all over again. So the guitarwork here is either that, the aforementioned minimalistic leads, or attempts to imitate Asunder's A Clarion Call that end up sounding just as rhythmic as the chugs, meandering and underdeveloped, and having none of the original's elegance and smooth even flow. In the end, I cannot remember a single thing off of Sentiment after multiple listens, except for the general sound of the album and the spaced-out chugs, which for some reason sound much better when it's Evoken or diSEMBOWELMENT doing them, and don't really fit the lighter melodic style that Un play.

I've already mentioned that the leads here sound quite a bit like Warning, and I think Patrick Walker's other project, 40 Watt Sun, specifically their debut The Inside Room, is a pretty nice comparison for Sentiment. It's also praised for its thick production and sense of melody, and I also cannot for the love of Pete Townshend get why people like it at all, let alone as much as they seem to. Except Sentiment hasn't become a modern classic just yet, of course, and instead of Pat Walker's disturbingly well-enunciated reedy wail, here we have Monte Mccleery's deep growls that actually sound professional, energetic, varied and overall pretty great. But of course, these are growls and they don't carry the music, so they alone cannot make the album great. And while The Inside Room had plenty of interesting bass work and nice drum licks with a funny "trash can" snare, the bass on Sentiment might as well not exist, while the drums are as bare-bones as they get, accompanying the chugs with the simplest of beats with no groove or, well, life to them. And actually, "bare-bones" a pretty nice adjective for all of Sentiment. Maybe I'm just not getting it yet, but even hard-to-understand funeral doom like Mournful Congregation, Skepticism, Esoteric and Asunder's Works Will Come Undone took less time to grow on me, and while in those bands I only heard potential and liked them more with each listen, with Sentiment it was the exact opposite of that. Listening to similar American bands like Usnea, Bell Witch and the aforementioned Asunder (I know I mention them a lot but I love them) has only made me like Sentiment even less and realize that this sort of doom has already been done much better by others, and listening to Un's own post-metal demos made me realize that they can (or at least could) do better as well.

The American west coast (Portland, Seattle etc...) sure has a distinct sound, call it Cascadian or whatever, it’s unimportant in the end. What matters is that most of those bands are pretty damn good and interesting. Acts like Lycus, Alderaban, Ash Borer, Usnea or Bell Witch put a lot of atmosphere in their extreme metal and they help the creation of a potent sound.

Un (one in French) released their debut full length back in 2015 and I thought it was an impressive slab of slow stuff. Sentiment, their sophomore album improves their formula ever further. Funeral doom is a hard style to mess around, its primary components make it hard for its disciples to truly distinguish itself. They’re like those black cultists preaching at the altar of the olde godes like Esoteric or Thergothon. While Un aren’t iconoclasts or genre revolutionaries, they did enough to separate themselves from the pack.

Funeral doom is often seasoned with death metal or even black metal (see Nortt) but using the American blend of sludge (high in trans fat, see Crowbar) was definitely a good idea. It doesn’t make a super huge difference in the final result but it’s a bit more exciting than your run of the mill funeral doom band. The growls of front-man Monte Mccleery (probably also a cowboy with that name) are deep and ultimately quite traditional but what sets them apart is their guitars. You obviously have those slow, crunchy riffs but the band lets itself loose with those big joyful melodic leads like at the end of the title track. It’s borderline post metal at times but it’s never unfocused.

Just like the artwork where ruins are meeting a meadow of colorful flowers, darkness meets light. The inclusion of female vocals on “Pools of Reflection” did wonders for their atmosphere as well. Un’s strength relies on the small details and their propension for melody and beautiful guitar leads.

Metantoine's Magickal Realm