Much of the press and promotional material surrounding Norman, Oklahoma\u2019s Sisteria references bands like Heart and Led Zeppelin\u2014the former due to the phenomenal range and power of vocalist Katie Williams, and the latter due to the bluesy stomp that propels many of the songs on their debut record Dark Matter<\/i>. This is dangerous territory to tread in 2022, over 50 years after Led Zeppelin I<\/i> was released and countless bands have tried to conjure a similar artistic and commercial success from the same basic elements.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, any fears of rehash are dispelled immediately as the first song of the record, \u201cWade My Way,\u201d veers quickly from an admittedly Zeppelinesque opening to something far more singular, thanks in large part to Williams\u2019 willingness to add more than a little grit and aggression to what is one heck of a voice. Expressive and defiant, she demands attention. The band also sound more than game to keep things from getting too clean as guitars crackle and static seeps in around the edges. A second guitar\u2014sometimes bowed\u2014adds texture (while somehow avoiding the obvious Zep comparison), and an organ fills out the sound. Occasional flashes of doom point toward not just Sabbath but the subgenre itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cHunger\u201d follows in a similarly stomping vein with Williams\u2019 voice seemingly free of any sort of limitation, the song ending in a fit of wailing and moaning. And if that sounds like Robert Plant, well, I\u2019ll get to that in a moment. <\/p>\n
Williams was a folk singer before a temporary move to Albuquerque prompted a turn toward harder music. Having spent a number of years in that city myself, I can attest to the prominence of metal in the high desert. \u201cOm\/Yes,\u201d on the other hand, shifts gears a bit to feature that folk background with a decidedly Celtic turn that then breaks down into a bit of noise overlaid with screams and howls. <\/p>\n
Musically and lyrically, it\u2019s this experimental element that raises Sisteria above the classic rock comparisons, making them both a more challenging listen and, ultimately, a more satisfying one. I would consider them more aligned with the outsider metal bands I saw coming through Albuquerque myself, particularly female-fronted groups like Acid King, Windhand, and Witch Mountain. <\/p>\n
It can be all-too-easy to compare female-led bands to others, but there is something undeniably powerful about women\u2019s place in heavy music currently, and Sisteria is yet further evidence. Of course, the band name makes that connection itself, and fans of Emma Ruth Rundle, Chelsea Wolfe, and dark-folksinger Marissa Nadler will also find something to dig into here. Like the aforementioned, Sisteria channel plenty of darkness (any of two or three interpretations of the album title are surely correct), but similarly find the beauty and power in making something positive out of the shadows that is both healing for the creator and can be shared with the likeminded. Alchemy, you might say, and this is frequently witchy music.<\/p>\n
Both \u201cPale in the Darkness\u201d and \u201cStar Child,\u201d embody the experimentalism and exploration, both musically and emotionally, that make Dark Matter<\/i> a very contemporary listen. These are lengthy songs that demand some attention to understand. The haunting lyrics of \u201cPale in the Darkness,\u201d about burning\u2014and ultimately rising\u2014witches, for example, could slip past but they do not sound meant to be in any way metaphorical or fantastical. \u201cStar Child\u201d aims for outer space, taking its time to get there ala Hawkwind, and ending with a bit of backward masking.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The next two songs, \u201cWinter Crow\u201d and \u201cRamblin\u2019 Woman,\u201d step back slightly to allow for some breathing room. Both are lovely tunes, allowing Williams\u2019 voice plenty of space to swoop and soar. I would suspect there are Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span records in the collections of Sisteria, the Celtic influence bubbling up occasionally throughout the album.<\/p>\n
On the vinyl, \u201cReaper\u201d is the final track, another blues workout with spooky organ, a quiet bass interlude, and a scream or two. It brings to mind Sabbath again, which is the wellspring of much heavy music, before slowly fading away.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cBurial Ground\u201d is a bonus track on the CD, and while it\u2019s hard not to want things to finish with another rocker, the song is ambient and experimental, featuring disembodied voices amid toms, electronic noises, and scratching instruments that eventually build to a brief climax before quickly dissolving again. As much as I like to rock, it\u2019s the right way to end the longer format CD, pushing in the direction of that experimentalism and less-straightforward expression.<\/p>\n
All-told, this is a record\u2014and a band\u2014that could easily find themselves getting plenty of attention. There is some mass appeal here, no doubt about it. But if there\u2019s one thing we\u2019ve all learned lately, it\u2019s that no one knows what might happen next, and, for now, this is the sound of a band quickly finding rare strengths and pushing at the edges of them to see what might lie beyond. I hope that what is easily one of the best new bands of 2022 keeps pushing for years to come.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n
As a postscript, this album was released by Horton Records, a non-profit label whose stated aim is to \u201chelp Oklahoma musicians fulfill their artistic goals and further promote local and regional music on a broader scale,\u201d an added bonus to purchasing a most worthy release. And in the interest of full disclosure: I now live in Norman myself but had never heard of Sisteria or Katie Williams until the label contacted the Daily Vault. Blame the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":34569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10765],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-46416","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sisteria","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46416","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\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46416"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}