Northless are an extremely heavy band. That might be a complete understatement, but they are sincerely heavy. It’s not just heaviness that propels them, either. Their new LP, World Keeps Sinking, is an undoubtedly creative effort in which Milwaukee’s best provide a range of technicality, finesse, and experimentation in their music. Swaths of color arise from these dark depths and give rise to an album that is full of life.
“Last of Your Kind” opens World Keeps Sinking with heavy, grinding riffs. These riffs are thick, sludge induced comas that slowly move forward until the three minute mark when Northless opens things up. Taking elements from hardcore, namely acts like Weekend Nachos, Northless takes a similar stance lyrically with a very nihilistic worldview. The track forms and breaks down for eight minutes; a long, heavy track that feels like going toe-to-toe with a heavyweight boxer. Sure, you’re knocked down a few times, but imagine being forced to get back up. That’s where Northless makes their sound, in those moments of extremity. Damningly heavy guitars chug away, getting to the meat of the song where the bass is heard in full; this brick wall of noise. In the waning moments, the vocals become harsher, more sporadic as Northless amps up the distortion to higher levels of heavy. This throaty, crippling breakdown closes out the eight minute epic, leaving the listener to wonder just what kind of unholy monster has been released.
“World Keeps Sinking” is such an appropriately titled track. It is five minutes of fury. The stop/start mentality from the faster paced aggression to the doom style segues seamlessly together. Riffs are engrossingly interesting; “World Keeps Sinking” isn’t a prototypical sludge release of one-note chords that are repeated, but the changing of chords equals a changing of sound. The scope and feel of the track changes as Northless mixes it up. Each riff can be their own movement, each instrument cognizant of the others, and the bass and drums mix cohesively with the ever changing patterns. This kind of musical creativity in composition is what gives way to Northless’ heavy sound; they understand their instruments entirely to the point where they can squeeze out extra distortion and fuzz to perfect their soundscape. “World Keeps Sinking” is a hailstorm of hatred, one rooted in despair and ultimately a bludgeoning track that paralyzes the listener, leaving them to succumb to its might. It is like a war-torn environment; charging up a hill against the opposition with no hope of surviving. There, on the side of the hill is the other army, waiting for your hapless crew to make the mistake of even trying to take it. And then Northless strikes you down, with such crushingly heavy riffs.
“Passage” starts with a four minutes of airy guitar. This washes over, painting a brighter picture. The injection of this guitar part is the calm before the storm; when the drums and bass make their introduction there’s a more post-rock feel to the whole sound. Northless shows versatility by being able to make a different sound, and even though there are qualities of shoegaze, Northless still makes their sound heavy. The track changes from something wafting and airy to downright menacing — these guitars chug along, piling dirt on top; these layers of heavy weight pressing down, suffocating ye who entered here. The solo in the middle of the track is full of life and has a Middle Eastern flair to it. Once again, Northless cranks up the heavy but this time it’s more uplifting; this shoegaze sound comes wafting over. There’s such creativity to the sound — a little bit of indie rock comes to play as the track ends.
The final track, “Returnless”, is overloaded with extremely fuzzy bass tones. Slow, dooming chugs give a relentless attack of distortion. A true headbanger of a song, blending the ruthlessness of hardcore with drone metal. “Returnless” switches up towards the five minute mark, now much darker than before. Disjointed riffing takes over as the track fades out, punching along at the same steady beat.
World Keeps Sinking is a release full of intricacy. Sure, it is sludge metal at heart, but all these elements combined make a sound that feels good when listening to it. Northless put all of their efforts into making an album that sounds polished. They take what was already previously laid out by acts like Neurosis and Northless owns that sound. There could be a lot of metaphors to describe this sound; things like cannon fire come to mind in terms of its raw power. Northless makes the listener feel their presence; they don’t hold back anything on this album. A lot of times, sludge can sound blasé. But World Keeps Sinking isn’t like that. It’s an LP that exceeds all preconceived notions of “sludge”, kicks it to the curb and reforms itself.
The album is available August 23rd from Halo of Flies and Gilead Media.
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