Band:	Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth
Album:	Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth
Style:	Doom metal, Sludge metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	February 17, 2015
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Lava
02. Empires Of Dust
03. Unnamed
04. La Mano Poderosa
05. I Am
06. The Immutable Path
07. Outro

Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth is to sludge what Bob Ross was to painting.

I know what you're thinking; "polite and friendly?" Good guess, but no. The lofty analogy pertains to the versatility of this band. As soon as you think you've got the whole picture in front of you, bam! They dab a happy little cloud on there for good measure...or whatever the doom/sludge equivalent of a "happy little cloud" is.

Seriously, this album opens up sounding like another NOLA sludge export; the slow, crushing grit of Eyehategod, combined with the catchy riff work of Down. It's good, if a little derivative. By the time you're halfway through "Empires Of Dust", it's quite clear these Seattleites aren't so easily pinned down. The NOLA sludge begins to unfold into cavernous Ahab-esque melancholia, which spirals into some dialed-back USBM type sound. Not necessarily in that sequence. That's really just the bare bones, it's cram packed full of nifty little details like cold post-metal passages or Attila-influenced vocals. The whole package is executed with a tasteful balance between abrasiveness and clarity.

The only real issue here is the dead weight at the back end of the album. "The Immutable Path" is such an eerie piece, it seems like the perfect, logical end to this sludge masterpiece. For whatever reason, they tossed on an actual outro which absolutely pales in comparison. Already clocking in at roughly 43 minutes, it's not like the album was hurting for time, so the piano outro just comes across as a bit of a pointless addition that detracts more than you'd think.

We're just in the middle of the 2014 Metal Storm Awards as we speak, so maybe it's a bit early to be thinking about next year, but this should already be a strong contender for 2015's best sludge album.