Directly from DC to you, heavy eclectics Sorge release their debut EP.
Coalescing in 2017, Sorge has been engineering a swelling evolution in sludge and doom. The band is Christian Pandtle (bass), Joshua Gerras (guitars and vocals), Mike Romadka (drums), Logan Boucher (lead guitars), and Jake Filderman (synthesizers). That’s a lot of musical firepower, and they use it all. The keys and sounds wrap around and through the traditional heavy music instruments, fomenting resolutions undiscovered in other places. Gerras’ voice puts me sometimes in mind of David Eugene Edwards (that’s a deep pull, folks – you’ll probably have to look that up), but he sets it in these exploratory compositions perfectly. Joined with the insistent rhythm and the churning guitars and the synth, the result sounds like what might emerge in nature after a cosmic incident.
There are four long songs on the EP, taking the minute count to almost full-length measures. The wake-up is “Faith of a Heretic,” a complete introduction to the Sorge way of doing things. The song has a classic doom intro, then the beat picks up and the vocals change. The lead guitar walks you in another direction before the synth steps in to shine jagged light on the story. “A Horse In Turin” and “Argent” (my favorite track) hold the middle ground, expanding on ideas presented up front. The closer, “Astral Burnout,” has the heaviest feel to me, and it is the most up-tempo. Guitars rule in this landscape, and the doom riffs are pepped up by the lead work near the end. This set is an excellent beginning for the band, showing talent and promise. Recommended.
You can grab the new Sorge EP at Bandcamp and the usual places tomorrow, Friday June 5. There is talk of physical versions of the album coming out down the road but right now it’s the digital. Hearing it is the most important thing.
Band photo by Matt Carter.
Links.
Flying Fiddlesticks Music Blog 