Two Beasts

Description

For the uninitiated, "Two Beasts" is a complete album about SUMAC's situation at the end of autumn 2020. The songs address all the elements that make the band unique. Gut-wrenching bass? Check. Unreadable time signatures? Yes. Long empty pauses and repetitive structures? Yes. Gigantic grooves? Absolutely. "Two Beasts" is experimental metal at its peak, 18 minutes of left turns with enough rewards to make it worth listening to closely. The band's new love for negative space and jazz-inspired arrangements adds, counterintuitively, an element of danger to the music. If heavy riffs are the best friends of heavy music and quiet moments its kryptonite, then SUMAC seems to operate under the adage "keep your friends close, but your enemies even closer." SUMAC's recordings sound great. It's hard to imagine that such brutal music can be so enjoyable to listen to, and this is a major element that sets SUMAC apart from its peers. Once again recorded at The Unknown, an old converted church in the sleepy town of Anacortes, Washington, "Two Beasts" sounds both live and meticulously produced. These are musicians at the top of their game. Listening to "Two Beasts," SUMAC is a band that can seemingly do it all.