Mare

Tyler Semrick-Palmateer, former screamer for tech-metal theorists turned death metal delvers the End, has decided that speed kills and it’s best to be avoided with his new project, Mare. Instead of the frenetic tempos and serrated structures of the End, Mare revels in all things slow, doomy and oppressive on this five-song, nearly 25-minute eponymous debut/demo, rarely busting out a quick movement before delving back into the musical muck. As a new band, the sludge/doom touchstones are present — Neurosis, Isis, old Melvins, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, etc. — but what sets Mare apart from other bands just aping the sludge providers past and present is their level of artiness (which the greats possess). Breaking up the doom, gloom and slow, mordant pace, one can find choral singing build-ups reminiscent of something Patton would pull off in later Bungle work, and some ominous jazzy moments complete with clean, dark crooning. Plus, there are Tyler’s truly vicious, banshee-like cries and a peculiar air of unorthodoxy that set Mare apart. Of course live the artiness can turn to pretension (they need to lose the interpretive dance parts post-haste) but with rumours of offers already circulating from some of the underground’s more infamous labels, Mare should easily sidestep the lingering shadow of the End.