yob - 'the illusion of motion'
released: october 19th, 2004
running time: 50'00"
metal blade records
songs: 1.ball of molten lead 2.exorcism of the host 3.doom #2 4.the illusion of motion
Under this mysterious three letter name resided one of the brightest prospects of doom metal, a band that had slowly but surely captivating several factions of the more unconventional musical circles. 'The Illusion Of Motion' is their third album, released in 2004.
What is great about Yob is that they manage to create something new out of a concatenation of clear influences. The development and dynamics of the huge songs (the last track clocks in at 26 minutes) bring to mind, if you can quite imagine that, Neurosis jamming with Sleep. There are hazier, more stoner parts in the vein of Electric Wizard or Burning witch, and the rockier moments owe some dues to Black Sabbath and, more contemporarily, to High On Fire. If you're at all into this kind of music, I expect you to be drooling already, and for good measure.
When a lot of bands struggle to write consistently interesting songs over the 4 minute mark, Yob effortlessly build 15 minute and more monoliths during which never once the idea of skipping crosses your mind. There is indeed some Sleep-like repetition of riffs, but the alternation of clean (sounding like, erm, Dave Mustaine, but trust me, it works) and gruff vocals sets the tone for the tempo changes as well. Even if they never turn into a speed metal band, they do go from crawling slow doooooom to rockier moments, without ever losing the almighty crushing power.
Unlike many other doom bands, they don't just rely on the humming heaviness. Even on the first listens, the remarkable simple-sounding complexity will be apparent - on opener 'Ball Of Molten Lead' they sound like Pink Floyd circa 'Dark Side Of The Moon' mixed with Rush and, again, Neurosis. This, coupled with the very long songs and drawn out compositions, makes it a rather hard album to get into. But if you stick with it the rewards are immense. Since then, Yob have released their fourth album 'The Unreal Never Lived', which manages to top this one, and tragically disbanded.
Prog doom, anyone? whatever you call it, it rocks.
the good: it's doom, jim, but not as we know it - a surprisingly fresh take on a rather limiting genre, mixing crushing-but-grooving slow heaviness with prog rock techicalities
the bad: 4 songs in 50 minutes require a stern attention span and it's everything but an immediate record
the good: it's doom, jim, but not as we know it - a surprisingly fresh take on a rather limiting genre, mixing crushing-but-grooving slow heaviness with prog rock techicalities
the bad: 4 songs in 50 minutes require a stern attention span and it's everything but an immediate record
Oddly enough, I can't get into this bad. I have two of their CDs but I don't find myself listening to them. They have all the elements of stuff that I like in music too. I'm sure one day it will all click. Too bad they broke up. Whether I can get into them or not, they were very unique.
ReplyDeleteI have the fourth and final cd from them. It took me quite a while to get into them, but it finally clicked. It's big and slow almost mechanical in it's approach. As far as pace, yes they are more similar to stoner bands like Electric Wizard and "Dopesmoker" era Sleep than they are like doom bands. Yet I wouldn't be surprised if they liked a lot of 70's progressive rock as well. I would like to hear this album and the others at some point.
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting, I like the sludginess of doom like Cathedral and Memory Garden. But I'm not sure about the stoner rock stylings. I'll have to give Yob a listen and find out for myself. I love the doom/death genre.
ReplyDeletesadsadkitty - é estranho mas é verdade, o homem parece o mustaine em algumas partes. :) e são realmente diferentes e fogem à monotonia que é o principal ponto de contenção que tenho com algum doom.
ReplyDeletefred - yeah, that's another thing in which they're like neurosis. nothing really seems to stand out at first, but there's a moment when it all clicks in your head. give it a few more spins :)
mark - 'dopesmoker' is one of my favourite stoner records, actually. i read a really funny description of yob the other day on some forum as 'pink floyd meet the melvins at a cannibal corpse show', and i think that describes their influences rather well. :)
dpth - i think that you'll enjoy this if you like cathedral. it's like a mixture between 'endtyme' and what i call the hippier cathedral records.
Wow, these guys have a new album out already? DOOOOOOM!
ReplyDelete