Band:	Colombian Necktie
Album:	Twilight Upon Us
Style:	Alternative metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	August 19, 2014
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Stockholm '73
02. Guiding Light
03. Play The Game
04. Alternate Dimensions
05. Weep For The Future
06. Drought
07. Sleepwalking
08. These Three Words
09. Ready To Burn
10. Kevin's Song

Between Cancer Bats' Bears, Mayors, Scraps And Bones, and this grimy little massive debut, it's a pretty big wonder why the hardcore and sludge roads don't cross more often (or "sludgecore" as we're calling it now, apparently). While Cancer Bats definitely put out a stomping, yet slick, commercial friendly album with their 2010 release, Colombian Necktie is all about exploiting the raw, dirty, chaotic side of both genres.

Now, if you're not up on your organized crime lingo, Wikipedia defines a "Colombian necktie" as "a method of murder wherein the victim's throat is slashed horizontally, with a knife or other sharp object, and his or her tongue is pulled out through the open wound."

....

Damn. That's pretty harsh...and creative! It would be an absolute crime if these guys didn't live up to that name. Luckily for you, you can say you love some Colombian Necktie with pride!* It's everything that's really needed to create a killer album on both sides of the fence: It's groovy, filthy and pounding like any sludge album should be, with a giant heaping of unpolished aggression to showcase some true hardcore elements.

...Then the album progresses. It starts shifting into a larger, more atmospheric, post-metal approach to sludge. Let me put it this way; the first part of the album sounds as if Red Fang and Dragged Into Sunlight teamed up to record a doomed-out hardcore album, then about halfway through "Drought" they handed the reigns to Cult Of Luna to finish this beast off.

That's where Twilight Upon Us might split the listeners down the love or hate line. It opens up as an album built on undiluted anger and aggression, only to end with much more of a sombre, melancholic overtone. Some will see this as an unwarranted shift in tone, others (should) see it as a fantastic, natural progression of a temperamental album.

If you're looking for a grimy, moody listen, look no further than Colombian Necktie. This debut is a breath of fresh - or musty, depending on how you want it - air into the sludge world.

*It's even more fun if you leave out the pretext that it is in fact a band you're talking about.