Band:	Herod
Album:	They Were None
Style:	Math metal, Post-metal
Release date:	April 27, 2014
A review by:	R'Vannith

01. The Fall
02. The Glory North
03. Inner Peace
04. Northern Lights
05. Sad Hill Part 1
06. We Are The failure
07. Albert Fish
08. Betraying Satan
09. Watch 'em Die
10. No Forgiveness For Vultures
11. Sad Hill Part 2

Inspired by the bitterly barren and cold regions of the Scandinavian north, Herod slam the adjective "heavy" with an equally chilling new meaning.

Currently, if you venture very far into progressive metal, you're bound to come across djent at some stage, either in an infrequent and vague application of the sound as a mild stylistic variance, or in all its stringent purity. The onomatopoeic preference seems to be quite a trendy infiltration, and many would associate the modern polyrhythmic direction of the genre with Meshuggah's offspring, to an extent. This extent depends upon how much of an inspirational angle it turns out to be for a prospective band, and Herod approach it from an unexpected position.

The dominant element of this Swiss band's debut is sludge metal, which is characterised with a noisily eruptive and heavy post-hardcore delivery. Strangely enough, and despite bearing rather different stylistic tones, They Were None is something like a straightforward, dejectedly angry and heavily sedated Meshuggah in execution, slurred by sludge and decidedly drugged in any of the technical precisions of the grooving guitar work. Given the pacing at which Herod proceed, they aren't in a hurry, in other words, even as threatening with a caged technical furiousness as the album is.

The tempo does increase the tonal flow of the sludge in tracks such as "The Glory North" or "Betraying Satan," the hardcore to these coming faster and thicker as the continually abrupt baritone guitar abstractions successively interject into the sound and produce a jarring effect which works well in concurrence with said hardcore. This effect is the record's imperative, and for much of its duration this is the emphasis.

While there is a likeness to Cult Of Luna in the gradual progression of the tunes, there isn't a likewise densely composed atmosphere established across the album as a whole. Although opener "The Fall" and "No Forgiveness For Vultures" come closest to validating the application of the stylistic descriptor of "atmospheric sludge," and the two part "Sad Hill" sequence offers a backdrop with a droning quality continually ruptured with stabs of djent and discordant riffs.

From track-to-track, not a lot stands out from the mass aside from the ubiquitous heaviness and lurching nature with deceptive calculation. The mix is sufficient enough to allow for the percussion to emerge through the murky haze of sludge with all its hardcore accentuated guitar work and djent derived segments. The drumming is often the busiest component of the album's instrumentation, variably crashing around the tracks as the intermingling of djent and pound of riff issue out heavy repetitions and the vocal arrangements relinquish the album's inbuilt fury.

Ultimately the progressive initiative behind this variant on sludge metal is commendable and produces a sound not yet touched upon. They Were None is a considerably original experiment, which would see sludge metal in a new and current progressive context.