Band:	Sofy Major
Album:	Permission To Engage
Style:	Sludge metal
Release date:	October 2010

01. Sky Silent Broken
02. Cobra Blanc
03. Reproached & Scattered
04. Dearth Of All
05. Outil
06. Douxjesus666
07. Stoom Stoom Stoom
08. Non Rien...
09. ...Vraiment Pas
10. Eugene

Sludge metal
Recorded: Studio Palissy, France 2009
Label: Basement Apes Industries/Odio Sonoro/Atropine Records/Prototype Records/ Bigoût Records
Total Running Time: 50:32


Sofy Major, or, how not to make friends with a stellar debut.

Sofy Major is your no bullshit kind of band. This French trio has a clear agenda: obliterating body and soul through consistently heavy music. At the same time Sofy Major is also your versatile kind of band with many dead-eyed faces. Yep, ambivalence will reign supreme in this review; I suggest you start dealing with it (the escape exit is the X at your upper right, ladies).

After such an intro, I'm sure you're all expecting a detailed and coherent description of the Sofy Major sound. Truth is this band doesn't roll that way. By keeping the accessibility to a strict minimum the band isn't offering the listener many handrails. This is pretty much Dakar Rally music; very challenging and demanding, and dangerously easy to get stuck in the quicksand before giving up altogether.

Cathedral-sized rhythm patterns sway back and forth between claustrophobic sludge with a vague post-hardcore sneer and, well, dissonant noise.

...And that's all I came up with after weeks of repeated listens and trying to put this music into words. I really got nothing here.

Since I kept wandering off into these weird sludge-induced trips, I'll just share one of those. So in case you aren't blessed with an abundance of imagination, Sofy Major won't be your thing either (the escape exit is still the X at your upper right).

You find yourself in the vast tundra wastelands. You see a lonely Ice Age hunter-gatherer. Stumbling through the snow, running for his life. Chased by a herd of fierce mammoths, seemingly startled by signature hardcore screams coming from the distance. The tremendously heavy animals pummel along and along. Eventually catching up and trampling the man, leaving him crippled in the freezing cold.

Or something.