Noye - Away

In the review of Ukranian band Nonsun, I mentioned that I hadn't heard any Russian rock or metal bands since the eighties and then sure enough a Russian sludge band shoots and lands an email in the inbox.  Calling them sludge isn't really fair as there's much more going on in the band's music.  Noye themselves state "we play some mix of sludge, doom and post-metal but we try to do it our own way".  

The album features a few short songs by an electronic band called Kratong which assist in creating a post-rock atmosphere and in some ways this could be considered a split release except for the fact that Kratong are on track 1, 5, 7 and 10 instead of the usual direct split separation of bands on shared releases.  The first track "Mire" by Noye is Sabbath tinged sludge with all the heaviness of elephant testicles.  The song quietens down towards the end and will keep those who like a little post in their metal smiling happily.  The vocals fall somewhere between Cookie Monster and Caveman but are still more accessible to a more casual meta listener than the average death metal vocalist maybe because the vocals are much sparser here.

  I'll admit I'm not the greatest fan of a great many bands who have tried their hands at post-metal hybridization but with this crew it works.  A problem many of the lesser post-metal bands suffer is the songs sound disjointed but Noye's quieter moments are obviously part of the song and wallop with a crushing heaviness that lighter moments, when in the right hands, can provide in "Spinners".   On the surface, "Fracture" is a noisy beast but there's a soft underbelly that allows you to stroke it but then yells at the listener and stands up to brutally assault the senses in a pleasurable way.   Doom strikes in more than one way in "Terror", the riffs are slow paced and convey that an unescapable evil is making its journey your way.

Noye are proof that the Russians are coming and also offering up musical hybridizaton of the highest and heaviest order.  Check out "Away" on Noye's bandcamp page.

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4.5/5

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