ALBUM REVIEW: Carrier Of Weight – Eremit

In the world of extreme metal, long form is in. It seems as if an arms race exists among bands (especially within doom metal and its now myriad offshoots) to write ever longer songs, sprawling opuses of riffs and rhythm. For many, this takes a discographies’ worth of practice and craft. For some, it’s something they embrace straight out of the gate. Enter Saxon sludge-doom slingers EREMIT. Their aptly named debut, Carrier Of Weight, is a three track, hour plus colossus, a feat that would seem unconquerable for any first effort, let alone one conjured by a two piece.

Opener Dry Land builds from distant ethereal wavering into a chiming guitar vamp, croaking vocals and restrained toms added on layer by layer. The drop comes in hard, huge grinding chords and Moritz Fabian’s scalded howl riding atop the wall of crushingly dense tone. Things lumber on, hinging on heavily repeated riffs and themes that both drop and gain pace, open out and close back in. The duo show off just how slow they can go, evoking Baton Rouge bruisers THOU slowed down ad infinitum as the track winds down into creaking, exhausted amps.

Froth Is Beckoning is a breezy eleven minuter, kicking in with an up-tempo stormer of a riff that comes straight from the CONAN playbook. Shrieked vocals pierce the groove conjured by relentless snare/cymbal one/two drum work, before the track turns the corner into an abrupt clean and sombre section. The band toy with pacing and it pays off, the roiling riffs and more concise length leaving Dry Land seeming a touch aimless by comparison.

Sprawling closer Cocoon Of Soul glides in on shimmering, reverb drenched feedback and mellow guitars. Marco Baecker’s drums begin to stir things up, agitating the tempo until the track bursts into a huge fuzzy grind that quickly gallops into a bouncing groove. Tremolo guitar lines spiral overhead, before the stride seems to slow as if the track has exhausted itself. Airy guitars float away before coming down hard into the core riff, the duo toying with a false climax before reprising slower and doomier. Just when you think you have EREMIT figured out, the last gasp acts as one final surprise, a rushing tumble of almost black metal styled riffing and heaving blastbeats.

EREMIT show a lot of confidence releasing such an extensive debut, and acquit themselves admirably, the latter two tracks serving as a showcase of their ability to construct songs to meet genre expectations, and then to frustrate those expectations. A few moments see themes stretched almost to the breaking point, a few too many repetitions robbing riffs of their power. A little bit of fat trimming would see the duo troubling some of doom’s reigning monarchy, but this is a solid first chapter nonetheless.

Rating: 6/10

Carrier Of Weight is out now via Transcending Obscurity Records. 

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