Photo Credit: Shauna Montrucchio
Southern California-based veteran sludge act, -(16)-, return with their seventh full-length album. Entitled Lifespan Of A Moth, the offering is clearly the band’s heaviest, darkest, and most complex material to date. The album is the follow up to Deep Cuts From Dark Clouds and marks the bands 3rd release on Relapse Records. The band broke up for a period of time but their love for all things heavy brought them together again and the band reunited in 2007. The new album was self-produced by -(16)- and recorded with Jeff Forrest (Cattle Decapitation, The Locust) at Doubletime Recording Studio in San Diego, California. Lifespan Of A Moth is set for release this July 15th via Relapse on CD/LP/Digital. Physical pre-orders via Relapse.com can be found HERE; digital preorders are available through the band’s BandCamp page at THIS LOCATION.
If you are anything like us you have been eagerly awaiting any little tid bit of new -(16)- music to hold us over until the album arrives. Just a few weeks ago we got our first dose with the video released for track 2 “Peaches, Cream And The Placenta”. If you were satisfied with that song then prepare yourself because there is a whole lot more where that came from. The entire album from front to back is filled with delicious nuggets of sludgy goodness. Your first introduction to the album is the opening song “Landloper” which begins with the sounds of waves crashing in and children frolicking in the background. The guitar riff slowly trickles in and it’s off to the races. Cris Jerue’s vocals pierce through the speakers creating pure joy to your ears. His tone and singing style is unmatched in the metal world. His voice is just so recognizable and memorable. Hear it one time and you won’t forget it. Moving on to “The Absolute Center Of A Pitch Black Heart” really speeds up the pace. The riffs on this track by guitarist Bobby Ferry are exactly what the doctor prescribed. The tempo change throughout the song with the riffs and the drum parts create this amazing synchronicity that just takes the song to a whole new level. The greatest thing about the album is how raw it is. The band didn’t go with any huge production or anything like that. The music isn’t camouflaged with anything high tech, when you hit play you get the fresh organic sounds of -(16)-. Before things come to a halt on the album they actually slow down a bit. “Pastor In A Coma” is a stand out song simply because of the melodic feel the song has. Cris’s vocals aren’t by any means melodic but the music brings this whole different persona to the track. Beyond the halfway point in the song the instrumentation really almost takes over the song when the bass lines come thundering through along with the precise drum beats at just the right second. Each track is perfectly composed to create the most unique overall sound. The overall rawness of the album is what really sets this album apart. In an era where bands are spending more and more money on production -(16)- proves they can do things themselves and put out one of their best records to date.
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