ALBUM REVIEW: You Can’t Go Back – Sarin

Toronto based SARIN release their third record, You Can’t Go Back. Boasting some real weight, this record aims to push into the heaviest sounds the band has ever produced, without sacrificing the more uplifting moments. Will it deliver?

Cold Open does not mess around. Straight off the bat, it’s filled with crunchy, heavy tones from top to bottom. There’s a nice level of growled and shouted vocals something akin to COREY TAYLOR, but with a very different accompanying atmosphere. If you like your post metal on the doomier side, then you’re on to a winner here. Brooding and hostile, it ticks all the boxes. Equally, When You Melt churns you around in a tumult, undecided if it’s doing to feel uplifting and shoegaze or deeply unsettling. It’s a lovely mixture of the two, and in all honestly benefits from a section of contemplation before jumping headlong into the layers of bass driven thumping and soaring lead lines.

Reckoner may be the most fluid movement. A solid, confident start that builds momentum and fronts an accomplished growl that really strikes a chord. There’s a feeling of a much more aggressive YAWNING MAN in here, as the droning and ambient soundscapes flurry, grate and call out like mystic beats over dark deserts and mysterious, almost blues influenced movements transcend into hard, heavy post metal.

Latest single Thick Mire retains its mystical predecessors’ themes, with a much more accented look at the weird. If you enjoy that psychedelic look at a darker psychosis, it’s methodical chugging has a super tasty drone interjection before battering into a satisfying charge into the unknown. Bold, dark and aggressive, it will serve your need to sway, dance or throw yourself around as well as exploring the blooming colour of instrumental.

While more subdued than the previous tracks, Otherness‘ intro serves as a much-needed respite before swallowing you in its lush tones once again. While keeping the same style and tone, there is definitely a lighter feeling here, that things don’t feel so oppressive and aggressive, but motivating and inspiring.

Final track Leave Your Body is the best amalgamation of all other moments on this album. Urgent, hopeful, mysterious, energetic, managing to keep things tripping and heavy makes for really majestic listening. This is one for hot road trips to far out places or in the thick of festival season, in a field full of blissful listeners; a triumphant crescendo to leave the album on.

SARIN have crafted an album that delivers on every promise with You Can’t Go Back. Filled with the darkest, heaviest sounds the band have ever produced, the incorporation of psychedelic, post rock and doom into the mix weaves a record of emotional highs and lows. It’s a bold and confident album that commands your attention and is well worth every second you give to it.

Rating: 8/10

You Can’t Go Back is set for release February 5th via Prosthetic Records. 

For more information on SARIN like their official page on Facebook.