Savannah, Georgia-based Kylesa confuses me — and, frankly, I
\nthink this is a good thing.<\/p>\n
Their latest full-length release,
\nTo Walk A Middle Course<\/i>, defies any type of labelling by
\ncritics. A combination of doom metal with hints of thrash, and
\npeppered with sounds influenced by Helmet, X and even
\nRocks<\/i>-era Aerosmith, Kylesa write and perform music that is
\non their terms. There will be no shoving this CD in one particular
\ngenre, nor will there be any real way to compare them to any band
\nbefore them.<\/p>\n
Carving such a musical path is a challenge, albeit one that
\nKylesa — guitarist\/vocalist Phillip Cope, guitarist\/vocalist Laura
\nPleasants, bassist\/vocalist Corey Berhorst and drummer Brandon
\nBaltzley — prove they’re capable of handling. If only the disc
\ndidn’t seem to drift into the background while one was listening to
\nit; otherwise, this disc’s power could well have been
\nunstoppable.<\/p>\n
Make no mistake,
\nTo Walk A Middle Course<\/i> is a worthwhile, though challenging,
\nlisten. It is challenging in that tracks such as “In Memory,”
\n“Train Of Thought” and “Welcome Mat To An Abandoned Life” take all
\nthe rules that one thought they knew about music — metal in
\ngeneral — and grinds them up like so much meat in a food
\nprocessor. Styles are crossed like state lines, often several times
\nwithin the course of one song. Yet Kylesa is able to make such
\nshifts sound almost common, to the point that the listener almost
\nfails to notice when the style shifts, say, from an homage to X to
\nan almost stoner-rock groove.<\/p>\n
But the one weakness dogging Kylesa throughout
\nTo Walk A Middle Course<\/i> is determining how to keep the
\nlistener’s attention throughout the course of the disc. I can’t say
\nI have a better grasp of how it could have been done in this case,
\nbut as I listened to the disc, I oftne found the music moving to
\nthe background as I went about my day. To be blunt, music this
\nmentally challenging (and that is meant in a good way) demands that
\nthe listener focus almost all their attention on the sounds
\neminating from the speakers. Somehow, Kylesa needs to figure out
\nthat one step to fully realize their musical plans.<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough, the closing track, the instrumental
\n“Crashing Slow,” turns out to be one of the most powerful on the
\nwhole disc. This isn’t to take away from the vocal performances
\nthroughout this album, but it does give the listener the full range
\nto appreciate where Kylesa is coming from musically. Maybe it was
\nbecause this piece came after the drawn-out assault of “Phantoms”
\nthat it gave the listener a chance to catch their breath and regain
\ntheir senses. And while I think it’s a great way to close this
\ndisc, I could also argue for moving it to the middle of the track
\nlineup.<\/p>\n
\nTo Walk A Middle Course<\/i> is a disc that refuses to tread
\nthose well-worn musical paths while Kylesa utilizes all of the
\nmusical influences they have and make their own unique sound. They
\nshow some incredible power within these ten tracks, even if it
\nsometimes seems like they’re still one step away from true musical
\ndomination. If their next effort continues to build on the
\nstrengths you can hear on this disc, one can imagine that Kylesa is
\nnot terribly far away from that last step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7150],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-38347","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kylesa","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38347"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}