Another Boris album, another slab of noise-drenched, riotous stoner metal. The Japanese crew just sound like they were having so much fun when they recorded this album. Some of the tracks here are just so insanely energetic and anarchic they sound like they have produced the perfect soundtrack to a riot. There are songs that poke their heads above the general mayhem, such as the industrial dance-beat affected Ghostly Imagination, the ominous, sax-laden Blah Blah Blah or the closing piano-led (Not) Last Song, but mostly this is an album to break stuff to! I know we are all supposed to stroke our chins and think deeply then write reams of crap because it's Boris, but fuck that, just slam it on, bounce around the room and have some fun.

Mike Scheidt seems like a nice bloke.  Numerous interviews and documentaries that I have seen of late with him present have led me to this conclusion.  Having come to understand his roots, influences and musical tastes has helped him to become more than just “that guy out of Yob who nearly died” as I sometime fear the music media typecast him as being.  Whilst I have no doubt Mike is every part the survivor he gets portrayed as being, there is an intensity to his live performances that burns brighter than anyone else’s that I have seen over the many years that I have witnessed extreme music.  Survival instinct aside, Scheidt’s a warrior when he has a guitar in his hands and a mic in front of his chin.  Enduring a tough upbringing at the hands of peers that saw him plunge into the world of punk, metal as well as new wave (which remains a strong favourite of his musical tastes still) I imagine relates him to a lot of folks who didn’t fit with the “in” crowd in their younger years.

As a result of these insights, I feel I have more awareness of the depths present in Yob’s music.  Something that may well have been previously lost on me.  Understanding how Mike learned to stretch his legs (and hands/fingers of course) to move away from bar chords and pick out notes, becoming unafraid to change things up, has helped me to notice some of the nuances, touches and inflections present in the music of Yob.  As a band who have always struck me as a trio who produce music with an enormous amount of structure, Yob have a reputation with me for building enormous soundscapes.  Clearing the Path to Ascend was the most vast listening experience I had heard to date with the bands discography.  With just four songs taking up over an hour of music, there was clearly little room for error here.

One could argue that with such a short array of lengthy tracks on offer, Yob could just throw the kitchen sink at each song and hope for the best.  They don’t.  As I mentioned earlier, if there’s one word I would associate with Yob, it’s “structure”.  There is a level of patience required to be invested by the listener with this record, one that for me personally reaps some reward.  The build ups take their time, but never to the detriment of the songs.  My attention does not wane during these moments and let’s be honest, who comes to a doom record to be deterred by repetition?  Scheidt’s nasal crooning and his guttural growls are probably the weakest part of Yob’s sound for me, yet I could not see any other style working half as well.  They are delivered (like the rest of the music) from the heart.  It is all about the riffs and heavy bass presence though for me, even if this does mean the drums are often lost in the fuzzy rumble of the mix of the album.  It doesn’t feel like a deliberately obtuse production decision has been made here though, as I could argue more percussion just simply is not needed.

In a genre where most records can sound the same, Clearing the Path to Ascend uses cosmic atmospheres in places to provide “pauses for breath” I guess and to add variety.  They are probably the most difficult aspect of the album to contend with for me.  I would be happy for them to be ditched in favour of more pummelling for my ears.  However, at over an hour long, I can see why the record needs these lulls in intensity.  Yob manage to bounce the tracks back each time though, so as undesirable as it may be, I can forgive them at least.  Listening to his album led me to the wider discography and I think that in comparison to some other albums, this one lacks any exemplar tracks.  As strong an album as it undoubtedly is, there’s only really ‘Marrow” that deserves real note for the absolute poignancy of its delivery.  No individual criticisms on a track-by-track basis then, but there are better Yob albums out there.

This was a favorite of mine when I started listening to more extreme metal, but it has fallen off quite a bit. It's a great listen overall, pretty fun stuff, but I think it really lacks memorability down the road. The opening track is obviously a classic and I do think it's great, but except for some really great parts (specially Drowned, the end of Bitter Loss and the awesome bridge on Morbid Devourment) I can't recall much of the rest of the album even just after listening to it, and it pretty much feels like the same song for half an hour. That is something to be somewhat expected from death metal, specially the old school stuff, but it's overly present here.

Also, a note on comparisons with Dismember: this is very frequently compared to LaEFS as they are the two most famous swedeath albums, but I think they're really not that similar. This is way more crude and rock n' roll-ish, maybe foreshadowing Entombed's later rock tendencies, whereas LaEFS has a more melodic and technical nuance. Production-wise, LHP is more chaotic and harsh and I think sometimes it's even a bit hard to understand what's going on, while LaEFS is more tame and controlled, resulting in something more cohesive and a fair bit more brutal. Also, Dismember's vocals are way more controlled and honestly better overall.

Maybe the definition of a kick-ass album. Through the first songs the only thing that I picture in my mind is endless mosh pit madness, because DAMN this is the perfect combination to bang your head to a wall. The absolute best of the swedeath signature guitar tone, chonky and relentless, and just awesome and fun punk infused death metal with some melodic stuff sprinkled over to give it an interesting twist. The only reason I deduct a half-star from this is because I think the album dips a fair bit on tracks 5 to 7, but the first four are perfectly intense and heavy, and they fortunately comeback with In Death's Sleep as a closer, which is one of my favorite death metal tracks ever. Just beautiful.

A step down from Shrine from a few years ago. The individual songs have become less focused and do not have any pazazz when it comes to ear catching melodies. The album undoubtedly feels more like a "vibes" album where the strong sound of a melodic metalcore foundation with a death metal tinge is going to be the aspect that listeners will remember the most. Zenith has ambitions of being a more complete project from Shrine and that comes through in some really intense production which is highlighted by a far improved vocal performance. Scott Kennedy's vocals have always been a bit of a presence when the harsh death metal screaming comes out, but his singing was quite lackluster on the previous record. This time around, the clean vocals are greatly improved; the rasp in the timbre fits well with the instrumental style and does not create this weird hybrid effect where it feels like you're listening to two songs at once. I wish that I could have enjoyed Zenith as much as Shrine, but the heightened expectations of how impressed I was by Shrine left me feeling a little bit empty here. The texture of the album can only work so much when your audience already knows your playbook. At some point, Bleed From Within are going to have to broaden their scope.

Best Songs: In Place of your Halo, Zenith, Immortal Desire, Dying Sun