Unkindness of Crows

Personnel: Gentry Densley (guitar, electronics); Tyler Smith (drums, cymbals, gong).
Audio Mixer: Randall Dunn.
Recording information: Seattle, WA (01/2009).
THE UNKINDNESS OF CROWS picks up where Iceburn's math-rock wizard Gentry Densley left off with ASCEND (a collaboration with Greg Anderson), taking the listener on an ominous expedition of experimental sludge, doom, and drone. Densley's shuddering and massive guitars and dark, guttural vocals evoke Caspar Brötzmann, utilizing not only the normal sounds that the instrument produces, but also the little bits of sonic magic that exist at the highest volume levels. It's as if the guitar is less of an instrument and more of a tool for conducting a wall of amplifiers to create an impossibly thick wall of fuzz. Tyler Smith's drumming on this album is equally monolithic, standing alone in the sludge storm and creating an unrelenting beast of burden for Densley's guitar fury to ride on. Eagle Twin's real success with this album is in creating experimental drone/sludge that is challenging and heavy enough for devotees of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, but dynamic and engaging enough to draw in listeners who might be too unsettled by the bold sonic experimentation of Sunn 0))). While not necessarily for the masses, THE UNKINDNESS OF CROWS is a solid experience for anyone looking for something that plays with the genre in an interesting, and powerfully noisy, way.