ALBUM REVIEW: Codespeaker – Codespeaker

Post-metal is a notoriously heavy genre. The likes of CULT OF LUNA and ISIS have long wrought their massive riffs with raw emotion to land as heavily on the psyche as it does the ears. It’s music you can feel, both in your heart and as it rattles through your bones. So when Edinburgh’s CODESPEAKER describe themselves as “heavy post-metal”, you have to wonder why they’ve made the distinction.

Turns out pretty quickly upon pressing play on this, their self-titled debut album, that theirs is a form of post-metal that has had sludge vocals and doomic riffs embedded into every fibre of its being. Like a cast iron rod through the centre of it all, the spine and frame of Codespeaker is a hefty and intimidating beast of high quality. Across nine tracks and 45 minutes, the band plunge the depths of visceral angst and anguish, fleshed out by low slung bass, deep, rumbling guitars, thunderous drums and fearsome vocals.

Opener Carthage presents an atmospheric spread that gets you tingling with anticipation. An exercise in patience and layering is rewarded with the introduction of Greg Armstrong‘s gravelly roars that ring out into the aether. Musically, the intensity is all on a similar level, but what CODESPEAKER manage to do really well is use the instrumentation as an irresistible centrepiece with or without those vocals. When the growls subside, the rest of the band goes back into atmosphere building mode, and introduce a subtle intricacy to their work. It remains heavy through thick tone, but it’s elevated by a soulful and emotional red thread.

Fraktur reveals a real BOSSK-ness about CODESPEAKER, presenting a slightly more chin-strokey side. The vocals and riffs are still lunch but there’s a more measured and considered element to proceedings here. Rather than an upfront violence like a bare knuckle boxer, this is a track that uses stealth to lurk and trick before sliding in for a clean kill. That kill comes in the form of a more staccato breakdown that opens into a barrage on the senses; the perennially climbing guitars, the bass like molasses and the drums completing a wall of sound all stacks up to oppressive heights.

But it is those passages of delicately picked chords, where everything slows down a bit to breathe, where Codespeaker shines as an album. The guitar work of Bob Fraser and Adam Thornton, and the atmospheric chops of the band, are not to be sniffed at. Chartists in particular shows these skills in full force, from the gentle opening to the steady build of the adrenaline pumping climax. It makes for a richly textured tapestry of modern post-metal mastery.

If we’re being picky, CODESPEAKER may rely on the same tricks and structures a few too many times throughout the album. Done as well as this it does waylay some of the opposition you can feasibly take to it, but it would be nice over three quarters of an hour to see them branch out a bit and examine new ways to deliver a similar effect. Their contemporaries and idols have enjoyed vastly varied and celebrated careers over the past couple of decades, so the pool to pick from is rich and we look forward to seeing what else they can do.

All told, CODESPEAKER have produced a solid, if safe release here on their debut. But it’s a stunning first foray that shows a deep understanding and appreciation of the scene they have so deftly integrated themselves into. Ones to watch – and watch closely – for sure.

Rating: 8/10

Codespeaker is out now via self-release.

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