Band:	Barishi
Album:	Old Smoke
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	April 2020

01. The Silent Circle
02. Blood Aurora
03. The Longhunter
04. Cursus Ablaze
05. Entombed In Gold Forever
06. Old Smoke

Sometimes judging a book by its cover works out quite nicely.

I have made very poor use of Instagram since some friends badgered me to get it last year, but one reason to now be thankful for it is discovering this record. A couple of months ago, Season of Mist posted an announcement regarding the release details of Old Smoke, the third full-length album by Barishi, a band I had never heard of, and the artwork immediately caught my eye. After giving the associated single a very cursory listen, I decided that the record would probably be up my street, and told myself I would review it no matter how it sounded, to get me out of the habit of only reviewing bands I know or albums I've already discovered I like. Mercifully, it turns out that my instincts were bang on the money.

By quickly checking out their previous record, 2016's Blood From The Lion's Mouth, before the release of Old Smoke, it became immediately apparent to me when approaching the new album that the band had become a lot proggier in the intervening 4 years; three songs here run over 10 minutes, compared to zero on their sophomore album. It's possible that this change in approach may have been influenced by a line-up change, as vocals have now been taken on by guitarist Graham Brooks following the departure of founding vocalist Sascha Simms. Whatever inspired the shift, it turned out to be a successful one; the group don't struggle to maintain interest across any of the longer songs, all of which are both explorative whilst also being willing to work with a singular idea for several minutes to extract everything possible from it.

The transition has also been successful on the vocal side; Brooks' beastly growls and vicious high-end rasps, and his willingness to flip between the two approaches on a dime, ably fill the void left by Simms. The instrumental work is also impressive throughout, with the regularly busy guitar work always intriguing, and the bouts of shredding (particularly explosive pyrotechnics near the end of "Entombed In Gold Forever") adding an additional rush of adrenaline. Similarly, the drumming is versatile and serves the music aptly at any given moment, whether layering on the toms and double bass drums during more atmospheric stretches or blasting for victory when necessary. All of this is ably served by a production that adds fire to the aggression whilst retaining sufficient clarity to allow the various intricacies to come through unopposed.

Sonically, Barishi would probably most aptly be labelled a progressive sludge band; the dirty guitar tone, punishing riffs and shredded vocals are combined with meandering song structures, off-kilter rhythms and atmospheric inclinations. The opener "The Silent Circle" starts off quite expansively, with Jon Kelley's bass leading the band into a measured, languid main riff that dominates the first few minutes of the song. However, the song gradually contorts and tightens its grip through a rhythmically complex, off-kilter midsection, and manages to both become more melodic as the minutes elapse whilst also ratcheting up the intensity. This song never quite explodes, but the band are comfortable venturing into more extreme territory, particularly on the shorter tracks, getting down and dissonant at times during "Entombed In Gold Forever" and bringing out the blast beats in "The Longhunter".

For the most part, I wouldn't make any grand assumptions about where Barishi's influences may lie; this combination of gnarly sludge riffing, forages into death metal and progressive songwriting could have been inspired by various sources. However, it would be remiss of me to not mention Mastodon; the contorted, busy, Southern-rock influenced guitar work throughout clearly draws from the 2000s prog-sludge work of that Georgia collective, with this particularly standing out to me in the latter minutes of "The Silent Circle". This culminates with the excellent closing track, "Old Smoke", which is far more stoner-oriented than the preceding tracks, and drinks heavily from the Crack The Skye well without sounding derivative. A stark departure from the rest of the record (aside from the melodic interlude "Cursus Ablaze"), "Old Smoke" turns down the aggression and even pulls out the clean vocals early on, which whilst not setting the world on fire, just about get the job done. Even when the harsh vocals return and the volume increases, the band still hold back and allow their cleaner side to shine. Given the overload of complexity and venom that much of the remainder of Old Smoke subjects the listener to, the ability to try something as different as this title track and nail it as well as they have is impressive.

The brand of complex, aggressive prog-sludge found on Old Smoke captures the essence of the murky psychedelic album cover that inspired me to check it out pretty perfectly, and whilst Barishi weren't known to me before, I'll certainly be keeping tabs on their future releases.