The Blacktones – The Longest Year
Release Date: 6th September 2024
Label: Sleaszy Rider Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Sludge, Post-Metal, Nu-Metal.
FFO: Dvne, Cult of Luna, Mastodon, Faith No More.
Review By: Andy Spoon
Fans of Dvne and post-metal will enjoy the heaving, sludgy feeling that The Longest Year offers. If you think that there’s a space in your line-up for progressive sludge, I think that these fellas might have your number. As a project that started almost 10 years ago, but has only recently come to fruition as a true final line-up, The Blacktones have been set to release The Longest Year on Sleaszy Rider Records on September 6th, 2024.
The overall tone of the album is bass-heavy, extremely gritty and heavy, leaning into the sludgy sound that is often associated with stoner-doom and groove heavy metal, but with the addition of some prog elements, such as synth and erratic time signatures. It’s clear that the bands employs a diverse background of influences, sounding a lot like Dvne at points, but also like heavier nu-metal acts like Dry Kill Logic and hardcord acts like Mastadon in others.
The heavy sound on the album comes from the “brown” amplifier-heavy tone from the rhythm guitar and the chunky bass guitar. The vocals are often buried slightly into the mix, allowing the guitar “wall” of sound to stay in the very front of the mix. It almost sounds like the band took the mixing and mastering that DVNE used and employed the same ideas. The drums are often slow and groove-centric, never trying to get too technical to prevent the track from losing the overall head-bobbing motif, relying on time signature jumps in a couple of tracks to show the “prog” influences off.
The vocals are interesting, as they seemed to call to a mix of influences like Faith No More, Dry Kill Logic, and other bands in the same circles as Mastodon or even thrashy bands like Slayer. There is a good amount of variance in the vocal techniques, from reverb-heavy cleans, to hardcore-based fry vocals that sound right out of early death metal or 80s thrash. Although I think that it appears to me that Faith No More (or perhaps Mushroomhead) is the closest parallel that I might make. If you’re a fan of that vocal delivery, you might enjoy The Longest Year.
The main reason that I wanted to listen to this album is that I believed it sounded like a good blend of groove metal with the influences that tend towards the darker, heavier post-metal. I personally think that the overall presentation is average to somewhat above-average for the entirety of the album. I don’t think there were any high or low spots of note. It seemed fairly consistent, but not boring, which is why I think it can make the above-average mark for the genre. The main impression that I get is that I believe Faith No More fans will really gravitate to the vocals, giving The Blacktones a great niche for their fans as The Longest Year is released.
(2.5 / 5)
