Band:	Keeper
Album:	The Space Between Your Teeth
Style:	Doom metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	April 01, 2015
Guest review by:	Alex F

01. The King
02. The Fool

Keeper have returned in rather quick succession to their split with Sea Bastard in the form of a two-song EP which clocks in at a surprisingly long 33 minutes. This length is quite indicative of the stylistic approach present within both songs, as Keeper have nearly abandoned the more upbeat side to their music in favor of purely crushing doom. Both songs are torturous, with repetitive and hellish riffs that suck the life from your soul as the band manifests an atmosphere of purely bleak sorrow. It is not without flaw, however the incredible execution of this often overdone style is achieved by few bands in my eyes, and Keeper definitely break that norm.

The Khanate-like vocals are back in full swing, and truly seem to be what ties this package together perfectly. The vocalist's throat-tearing screams simply shred through the dense instrumentation in such a way that no other vocal-style would and bring the band to a higher level of intensity. One area in which this intensity may actually play to Keeper's downfall is as each song slowly builds in tension. The vocals seem to have only one setting, namely "full-throttle", and as such they do not follow the general trend of instrumental tension and release, which detracts ever so slightly from the overall experience.

Whatever shortcomings the pairing of vocals with instrumentation may present, they are more than made up for in the actual structures of each song. Neither one follows any sort of conventional layout, and favor a purely natural progression through miserable landscapes of riffs and feedback. Like a wave slowly building only to topple down in spectacular violence, Keeper allow for the music to breath through this almost instinctive progression. It creates an experience which is completely unobtrusive to the ear yet surprisingly complex when focused on. As melodies fade into percussive noise and dissonant riffs morph to heart-wrenching melancholy, the band proves a level of expertise in emotional expression.

While Keeper are still relatively undiscovered, and have achieved little "commercial success" in the conventional use of the term, their increasing popularity and potentially increased means of recording have resulted in album that feels more polished. While the noisy edge of the demo is still certainly present, aspects like the drumming seem to have lost a bit of character and imperfection that was so prominent in that recording. It never becomes a burden on the ears, however I find that the increased clarity of aspects such as the percussion do in fact detract from the overall experience Keeper present.

A slight dip in quality from Demo MMXIV is by no means a deal-breaker for the band, and [i]The Space Between Your Teeth[i] is definitely an impressive recording, however the band will need to fully embrace the various aspects which differentiate them from the crowd if they wish to maintain relevance in the ears of listeners. Keeper are definitely still searching for their sound, and the potential they possess is at such a tremendous level that it would be a shame for potential listeners to pass over this or any of their other releases.