The Narrows - Benjamin

Well this sure is a breath of fresh air amongst all of the damaged art-punk and skronked out noise-rock that has managed to pulverize my ear drums during that past couple weeks. Not that this is anything that will be any easier on them, however. It’s definitely a nice change of pace though and an unlikely sound that surely doesn’t get as much as love these days. Back in the early to mid-nineties bands like Codeine, Low, Idaho, and so on popularized a little genre of their own that often focused on the gloom and doom side of things and churned out tunes that barely moved to give it that extra oomph of ultimate exhaustive depression I imagine. Needless to say when done right, as most of the aforementioned did, it made for some good listening. I bring all of that up because the latest album from the Bellingham, Washington trio The Narrows brings back some of those fond memories listening to those bands, although this is somewhat of a different approach. On Benjamin, the bands fifth album, they instill the same gargantuan weight of the past that is brought on upon with the slow lurching crawl in which their music is paced. One of the key differences with The Narrows though is that they are just as much about volume as they are with creating ambiance through moments of hushed and somber spacing. While the band plods along the songs are filled with walls of guitar noise that is treated with a nice thick coat of sludgy feedback. The Narrows are sort of like the beefier brother to all of those bands in the nineties that just never was or was kept in the basement all those years not to be spoken of at family get-togethers. Whatever it may be, I am pretty happy someone decided to eventually let this monster loose. Take a listen to the track below, good stuff.

The Narrows – Over and Out [MP3]

For anyone out there that is interested in picking this fine record up, then head on over to Wantage USA. I definitely recommend it.