Hespurus

5ive

Tortuga

2008-03-31

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• (Member — 0 votes)

5ive’s previous releases have admittedly been patchy but previous full-length Telestic Disfracture (2001) highlighted that the band could offer some inventive and healthily oppressive doom. The Boston two-piece group has been near silent for years though until now with the release of Hesperus, produced by Andrew Schneider (Cave-In, Daughters).

driving-rhythm-fuelled distorted noise

Opener “Gulls” offers promise for the new record, with the band opting for hard-edged, driving-rhythm-fuelled distorted noise creating a ballsy stoner sound — however it doesn’t lead on to bigger and better things as one may hope. Unfortunately the following track “Big Sea” is a fairly derivative and generic track a la Fire in Our Throats… Pelican/Oceanic Isis , but twisted worse with a nasty blues-edge jam section in its middle. After returning to driving rhythm territory, this time underneath wah-tinged guitar, in the next track “Kettle Cove”, the band offer a light picked guitar opening to “Heel”, whose eastern-tinged riff that is jammed out with more of the wah noise, now becoming slightly annoying, and is therefore thankfully short. Returning to longer song lengths at the latter stage of the album with “Polar 78” and closing two-part epic “News I” and “News II” means returning to the template and sound of “Big Sea” and the band’s post-metal contemporaries, as previously discussed, which is performed well, and moves from atmospheric lows to impressively loud highs, but just doesnt excite where it might have several years ago.

In its favour Hesperus does have some fine moments and can snare you into its groove, especially when offering some of the deep, heavy riffs that can sound pretty huge but overall the album is just a little average and disappointing, not helped by the production sticking too close to the classic post-metal sound.