Album Review

Seer - Vol. 6

When I spotted this when browsing this weeks new releases I wondered how the hell I have missed a band now on their 6th release, that’s probably a decade or so of writing and releasing music which I’ve never listened too, shame on me! However, as it turns out, I’ve not simply had my head in the sand to doom from the seems-quite-nice streets of Vancouver, they’re just a specifically prolific group and this is the 5th release in 4 years, all quite helpfully numbered in sequence for the anal retentive ones of us (Vol. III & IV comprise one full length).

Seer bring all the riffs to the party, as you would expect a doom band to, but what makes them stand out is the frankly fantastic vocals throughout the album. Bronson Lee Norton puts in a fine performance using a revolving door of vocal styles, he huffs, gruffs and quite possibly could blow your house down. The true highlights are not in the rabies infected bulldog deep growls which punctuate each slab of bastard lava metal they throw at you, but in the clean singing. As you would expect any doom band, there is a healthy slice of Black Sabbath, but there is a verity of other influences baked into this pie, and when the clean singing comes in, it is drenched, soaked and utterly dripping in a warm reverb, sounding more like early 80s  Mercyful Fate production using a tube-driven analogue reverb rather than a modern digital one. This really adds a layer of intrigue to Seer's sounds over a straight up doom band, and turns each track into a mini epic of its own.

'Vol. 6' starts off with a short intro track before the first full song in 'Iron Worth Striking', an almost 9 minute behemoth of a song, opening with plenty of the aforementioned reverb moistened vocals over a rolling thunderous cacophony of riffs and drums, the song ebbs and flows until it reaches its maniacal solos at the end, a superb start to the album. 'Seven Stars, Seven Stones' pulls you in with a massive hook of a riff, probably the stand out on the album, its doom, its sludge, it had echos of early Cult of Luna in the riffs, it all folds around the wonderful vocals.

We move into the second half of the album with 'Frost Tupla', opening with delicate Spanish guitar work, its hear where you really start to hear the wide influences on this album, it could be Sleep one second, it could be the beginning of the apocalypse the next, but its great either way. 'As the Light Fades' is the 4th and final full length track on the album, another excellent song, massive vocal hook and big riffs again, its a perfect mash of heavy vocals and singing, pianos, strings and plenty of other things holding it together right up to the climatic ending.

The only gripe I have with the album is it feels slightly shorter than you would ideally want, but there is the back catalogue I already mentioned to be researched, and the speed these guys write there will probable be something new along in a minute.

Seer's strength is that they have managed to take a doom/sludge sound, make it sound familiar with influences shining through but it always sounds new, it always sounds fresh, its always interesting, and unmistakably its always their own sound. Its always Seer.

KC

8/10

Top Tracks - 'Seven Stars, Seven Stones', 'As the Light Fades'