Band:	Grin
Album:	Translucent Blades
Style:	Sludge metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	January 17, 2020
A review by:	RaduP

01. Helix
02. Orbital Grace
03. Translucent Blades
04. Husk
05. Electric Eye
06. Holy Grief
07. Antares
08. Reviver

Bass has always been a pretty important instrument of sludge and stoner metal, but holy shit do Grin go up to 11 with it.

You may not yet be familiar with Grin themselves, but you may have heard of Earth Ship (or Earthship as they used to be called) and their connection to The Ocean. Grin themselves no longer really have a direct connection to The Ocean, so their goes their shot at association, but the duo that is Grin is two thirds of Earth Ship, so you'll find similarly fuzzy sludge in both bands. But you might ask yourself how exactly does a duo make sludge? Don't you need at least three people? Well you throw away the guitar, that's how you do it!

Well now Translucent Blades does have some guitar, performed by drummer/vocalist Jan, with the bass being in the hands of Sabine. Their previous albums seems to rely solely on the bass without any guitars but there are some moments on this here album where guitars themselves do have a bit of a presence. The good part? They never eclipse the bass. The bass rules strong all throughout. The Baizley-like (it fooled me at first that was his) cover art may lead you to believe this is less fuzzy than it actually is, but do not be deceived, this is equally heavy as it is spacey.

There is more to it that just a really heavy and bassy piece of psychedelic sludge. It does take that psychedelic part a bit seriously and does provide some damn good soudscapes, including the percussion-driven "Husk" that barely has any of that fuzz, as well as plenty of moments that slowly reveal themselves to deviate from the formula as the album goes into the latter half, even including a flute of all things. But whenever it goes back on throttle, it's full of muscle and Sleep worship, down to the clean reverb-full vocals. Definitely a fucking trip.

Deceptively simple at first, the full of bass and muscle reveals itself to cover a lot of ground, from psychedelic floating in space to getting crushed by a meteor stuff, it's 35 minutes that showcase just how much two people can do when they add a bit more to the core of bass and drums.