ALBUM REVIEW: New World Hoarder – Treedeon
Berlin-based noise/sludge trio TREEDEON have always sought to heavily decry “the existential uncertainty of life on this planet“. Their 2015 debut Lowest Level Reincarnation and 2018’s sophomore effort Under The Manchineel both established them as a band with something to say about the state of the world on political, environmental and personal notes. They have used the tumult of recent years to change their dynamic once more, and present their third album, New World Hoarder, as an even more boundary-pushing beast that allows all three members to contribute equally throughout the process.
While the central messages and driving ethos of voicing their disdain at the world have remained the same for TREEDEON, New World Hoarder does represent natural growth and evolution for the band in their sound, as well as the inner workings. Whereas their last release aimed to disembowel you with maniacal fury, they seem to be aiming for your heart and your head this time around, lacing their politically charged content with raw emotion and tension. The bizarrely named Nutcrème Superspreader and Omega Time Bomb open this album as a duo of stomping goliaths. Vocalist Arne Heesch shreds his vocal cords on both ends of the spectrum; anguished howls and guttural bellows wrestle amongst smokey bluesy clean passages, while the instrumentation ranges from glacial to frantic, steadily building up across these two tracks, like the band are brushing off the cobwebs in real time and getting back to the way they were on that last record.
With the title track, vocal duties primarily shift to bassist Yvonne Ducksworth, resulting in much more of an ELECTRIC WIZARD vibe; still punching just as hard but with a more fuzzy and ethereal sheen. Squealing guitars and an ominous bass riff get toes tapping and heads nodding, steadily ramping up to an irresistible fever pitch. But it’s RhV1 that arguably stands out as the highlight amidst the 45 punishing minutes of New World Hoarder. A restless behemoth that thrashes, tears and terrifies, culminating in a neck-snapping riff-filled breakdown all under Duckworth’s urgent and raw performance. Pitchy in places, but done in a way that only adds to the fervour and fury of it all, this is a fantastic display of how sludge metal has evolved in recent years.
On the other end of the spectrum though, Viking Meditation Song feels like a clunky and off-kilter outlier. Clumsy in its transitions and bogged down with lazy lyrics, TREEDEON seem to try to heap heaviness onto the shortcomings, resulting in a bloated and bothersome misstep. Indeed the 12-and-a-half minute closer Läderlappen suffers a similar fate, wherein the band try to do a bit of everything, but wind up with a track that feels like it does nothing. It’s a frustrating end to an uneven back half of the album and one that leaves a bitter taste.
At the end of the day, New World Hoarder is largely what you probably imagined when you read the noise/sludge genre tag, combining walls of sound with a heavy dose of headbanging riffs. Its 45-minute runtime can feel like a big ask at times, but when they get it right, TREEDEON know who they are and what they’re about and it’s hard to take issue with that.
Rating: 6/10
New World Hoarder is out now via Exile On Mainstream.
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