ALBUM REVIEW: Interspheral – Dirt Forge
Copenhagen has made some killer contributions to the sludge/doomsphere in recent years. From the apocalyptic onslaught of LLNN to the devastating death-doom of KONVENT, the picturesque Danish capital certainly isn’t short on riffs, and it’s got a few more for us courtesy of the wonderfully-named hardcore sludge trio DIRT FORGE. Admittedly these guys aren’t half as miserable as either of those contemporaries, but you will find a satisfactory weight and quality in their sophomore full-length Interspheral when it arrives this Friday via Majestic Mountain Records.
Rather than utterly crushing its listeners like a lot of great sludge releases have done this year, Interspheral’s strengths lie more in its ability to entrance and hypnotise. A natural enough successor to the band’s 2017 debut Soothsayer, this sits in more of a towering proggy vein that certainly draws one or two comparisons to the excellent work of a band like DVNE, for example, or even to the almighty TOOL at points. There’s also a fair helping of something a bit more stoner rocky, particularly in guitarist Alexander Kolby’s quite KYUSS-esque tone as heard on a track like Ascension.
If that sounds like a winning formula it’s because it is. Across seven tracks and 43 minutes, DIRT FORGE guide listeners to some kind of distant world while using the familiar means of massive riffs, weighty grooves and powerful bellowed vocals – also supplied by Kolby. Despite claiming a significant influence from hardcore, the band rarely rush their ideas, allowing tracks like Highest Low and the aforementioned Ascension space to mesmerise their listeners with winding odd-time rhythms and well-placed dynamic peaks and troughs. The quality holds steady after these early highlights too, with the sci-fi-tinged interlude of Moralterations rolling straight into the gargantuan riffing of Left In The Lurch for a particularly compelling middle pairing.
It’s not all plain sailing though. Left In The Lurch suffers from some quite cheesy and unhelpfully over-repeated lyrics in “As long as you’re silent / As long as you speak / As long as you stand alone / You’ll only taste defeat” for example, while more broadly the record does feel just a touch too long. There’s nothing here that makes an obvious choice for the cutting room floor, but by the time the 12+ minutes of sixth track Miscommunison roll around some will probably have had their fill. Others are likely to wish the band allowed themselves to get a shade nastier at point – something a little more ‘blot out the sun’ a la ETHER COVEN or ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE for example – but that isn’t really DIRT FORGE’s M.O. so it would be unfair to labour that point here.
And anyway, this is an undeniably strong record. It has an impressive dynamic power and it really is quite hypnotic in its riffs and rhythms. Maybe a little trim would’ve elevated it further, but three quarters of an hour is hardly an obscene ask, especially when it allows listeners the kind of interplanetary escape many of us look for so often nowadays.
Rating: 7/10
Interspheral is set for release on November 11th via Majestic Mountain Records.
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