01. Arrival
02. The Silhouette
03. We Fail To Love Ourselves
04. The Longing
05. Null
06. The One Percent
07. Self Control
08. Nothing Grows
09. Nothing Lives In This Soil
10. Permanence
11. The End Of Us

“We fail to love ourselves” – words that I’m sure many people have resonated with at one point in their lives, and words often accompanied by the kind of searing anger and negativity coursing through this sludge metal debut record.

Brighton’s Adur, named after the river that runs through their home county of Sussex, were formed a couple of years ago, but its members have prior experience in the UK metal underground from stints in bands such as Sea Bastard, Aerosol Jesus and Johnny Truant. The connections established in their former bands mean that notable guests such as Dan Couch (Helpless) and Abi Vasquez (Underdark) cameo on this debut record, which brings together the likes of sludge, doom, post-metal and hardcore across 40-odd minutes of groove and venom.

There’s three brief intro/interlude tracks on We Fail To Love Ourselves, which both create atmosphere and offer brief room to breathe, given the high level of intensity otherwise across the record. That said, the music is typically rooted at mid-tempo pace, providing heft and groove via meaty riffs. Kicking things off is one such example in “The Silhouette”; the verses are chunky and adorned with hoarse, pained screams (the harsh vocals across the record reliably convey real anguish), while the chorus offers one of the few examples of clean singing on the album. There’s elements of noise rock in the trudging bridge, which features one of several examples of spoken word/shouted vocals heard on the record, but the song ends with full-blooded power, double bass drums conjuring up a Hexis-style vibe.

Speaking of conjuring, the album’s arguable standout track in “The Longing” has a touch of Conjurer to the sad-meets-dark energy of its chorus, which exchanges with tasty riffs that balance groove, weight, bite and measured technicality. It’s a real monster of a song, one that descends into dingy chugging, breathes for a second with soft singing, and storms forth at the end by pairing said clean singing with an emphatic post-black conclusion. The muted interlude “Null” that follows after offers a perfect opportunity to reflect on the range and intensity of what Adur have just delivered.

There’s further surges of speed to be heard across the album. The title track flexes the hardcore influences with some punky rhythms early on, providing a glimpse of what is to come on the hardcore-heavy monster “Permanence”, a vicious attack that again delivers Hexis vibes, although it changes pace midway through and brings uncompromising heaviness to the fore for a malevolent sludgy hardcore slow breakdown ending. “Nothing Lives In This Soil” is not fast and vicious throughout, but its conclusion, a venomous attack of blasting and shrieks, is arguably the most intense moment on the record.

In spite of all those examples of Adur upping the ante, they are perhaps at their best when focusing on heavy groove. Beyond the punky rhythms, the title track also has some very tasty Gojira-eque tremolo riffing, gnarly sludge that balances venom with groove, and a cold Salvation-era Cult Of Luna touch to its brief post-metallic sequence. Offering a distinct, but no less compelling, vibe is “The One Percent”, a song that is almost arena-oriented in moments with its slick rhythms and double bass drum hits on top of the hooky groove of its main riffs. “Self Control” and “Nothing Lives In This Soil” contain further examples of tasty, weighty riffs that amply show off the band’s talents.

Overall, I think We Fail To Love Ourselves is a really solid debut. If there was any aspect of it I would alter, I must confess I wish there was less in the way of spoken/shouted vocals in the album’s more muted sections; I find them a tad obnoxious and intrusive, and especially so in the quiet, clean opening stages of closing song “The End Of Us”. This track is one of the few with post-metal inclinations, and I do wonder if there could have been a bit more room to explore those avenues across the album, as some promising lulls and builds were perhaps over a tad too soon.

Nevertheless, this is a very good exhibition of British sludge metal, with some good variety in vibe and intensity across the album and a healthy serving of juicy riffs to get one’s teeth stuck into.