EP REVIEW: The Path Always Leads To The End – Gozer

Sludge is a funny genre. There aren’t many other places where you’ll find a band releasing an EP that’s only one track shorter than their debut LP, but such is the case for GOZER. Last year’s An Endless Static was a solid mission statement from a band that could bring beauty and brutality together with cohesion and now their journey continues with a short, sharp reminder of what they’re capable of.

Of the four tracks on The Path Always Leads To The End, one is a standalone intro occupying just a minute, and another is an interlude of sorts that bridges the gap between two full songs. Both The Beginning and Gone Away are rife with dread, the former opting for a high tension drone and the latter opting instead for deep bellows of synth. In either case, GOZER manage to ensnare their listener as they sweep you toward the main events.

The first of those main events comes in the form of Celestial River which spends its first half steadily building the tension. When the vocals do come barrelling in, they do so with considerable power; righteous roars of malcontent that teem with fury and put the band’s full force on display. Closing with Where The River Meets The Ocean, GOZER continue to bluster in that familiar pattern – several minutes of steady building and then a final few minutes of full fury. Despite some ham-fisted and trite laser sound effects that are mixed in, it’s a solid enough cap to a perfectly serviceable EP.

The Path Always Leads To The End keeps the wheels turning and sheds more light on GOZER‘s own path, although calling this an EP feels like cheating seeing as half of the tracks do very little. Having said that, the actual songs offered here provide an intriguing insight into what might come next for the trio and confirms that they know exactly who they are.

Rating: 7/10

The Path Always Leads To The End is out now via self-release.

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