From the eerie Dark Ambient opening seconds to the abrupt end this is a tour de force of Atmospheric Sludge Metal by one of the most interesting bands emerging in the last years.
With their sophomore album, Scottish band Codespeaker have earned their place in this metal sub-genre and are taking the baton from the giants of the genre by creating a monolithic milestone in the development of this kind of music. It is amazingly well done and every chord is carved into each other, commanded by powerful hoarse growls.
An impressive instrumentation amalgamates the music, carving out a dense and misty soundscape with shimmers of light in between. The relentless riffing is often supported with a higher-pitched guitar glissading along the flow of dark atmospheric Sludge Metal. The foundation of it all is laid by impressive work of the rhythm section which sometimes softens the tight sonics. The vocals are as powerful as they come, with hoarse, commanding growls.
After the spherical echo-induced clean guitar opens the first song ”Usud”, the music takes a breath, and the drumset hammers out the direction for the tight and foggy sonics that flow throughout the album. It is extremely powerful in the way the guitars thunder forward, pushed along by the deep-end bass and some really diverse drumming. Everything embraces the powerful hoarse growling vocals. Already in this first song, the band displays their skills in writing complex and layered music with melodic themes. There are breaths of wide-reaching music swelling back into tighter parts with melodic guitars. When the music condenses after an intermezzo, the vocals fight their way back.
Atmospheric Sludge Metal or Post-Metal is always about massive guitar riffs forming melodic themes and a ponderous rhythm section. As if to prove this, the band goes even heavier in the next song, ”Signum”, with mighty elongated riffs opening the song. It all swirls forward as the hoarse growls pave the way and in the immersive yet thundering music. After a slow, pensive part, everything expands with virtuous drumming, pushing the music and the bass upholding the rhythm the riffing guitars can lean on. The track is rushing forward with high-pitched guitars swirling in the mix and riffs exploding with some airtight heaviness. Then it combusts like dense billowing fog and rushes to the end.
The album is a mix of aggression and reflection - two emotions fighting each other. The aggression finds its way into the hard and fast parts of the album, sometimes as aggressive or frustrated as Screamo Hardcore in the song ”Enso”. As the music becomes more congested and lifts itself to higher notes, the vocals resemble Screamo accompanied by powerful riffs and a guitar that glissades alongside the tense music. It is quite desperate and on the verge of imploding before it takes a deep breath and lets out even more Screamo vocals. The music fuses into a flow of misty sounds with engaging vocals shifting between screams and sharp, hoarse growls. It is angry and desperate as it races to a blasting end.
But in between the jarring and dense sonics, there are respites of wonderfully reflective parts contrasting the heavy and bursting sides. On ”Karts”, glittering clear guitars open the song with a slow pace. The drums and the soft bass lay a foundation as a higher-pitched guitar in tremolo mode forms a melodic theme. It is swallowed by a wave of dense riffs and the song floats forward, led by the low-end bass and pushed by the drums. The song pans out with an echoing guitar before it fuses into heavy riffs with drums marching up front. The guitars are slowly creating a tightened crescendo above hammering drums until a release widens the music, embracing the powerful vocals with a wall of sound.
The band took the name Codespeaker in 2019 and released the first single in 2022. They have in fact been active under another moniker since 2013, but gained pace when changing the name. Releasing their epnoymous debut in 2022 (which we reviewed of course), it was clear that this was a mature and self-contained band that would carve out their niche in the landscape of Atmospheric Sludge Metal. After a substantial change of band members, they now release their sophomore effort, proving that the line-up changes were probably the right thing to do as this album is quite a creative effort to achieve. They have emerged from the mist of the giants and found their place and sound in a - sometimes - unclear genre with a lot of mediocre bands. There is nothing mediocre with Codespeaker, they place themselves among the greats like Amenra, The Ocean, Cult of Luna, and Neurosis. As Codespeaker shows on the previous and this album, the band will keep the genre vivid and lead it onto yet unknown and delightful avenues.
