Studious metalheads may already know Turbid North, but everyone else may have missed the Alaskan crew’s brilliant Orogeny album from 2010.
A five-year gap means starting from scratch, of course, but a lineup change and a new home in Texas seem to have sharpened this band’s resolve and their songwriting chops.
Eyes Alive is a devastating piece of work; from moments of full-throttle, sludgy thrash to lolloping, red-eyed stoner riffs that appear from nowhere to slow the pulse, it’s a sound that remains bizarrely unique in modern US metal, and yet its simplicity is audacious. There is often something magical about a three-piece, and the way that Turbid North swoop and attack like some monstrous, three-headed bird of prey on brutish blasts like The Pyramid Drones and Destroyer Of Worlds is an unnerving joy to behold.
Even more impressive on the rumbling sprawl of Bring Home The Motherlode and closing slow-burner Eternal Sleep, Eyes Alive confirms – once more – that this band deserve to be heard and hailed.
