These Are They

These Are They announced their arrival on the scene with the Who Manifest EP earlier this year, laying down a three-track granite slab of old-school death/doom. Who Linger picks up where the EP left off (and repeats two-thirds of it), dredging up a gritty, sludgy metal carcass and driving it into the 21st century. This Chicago, IL-based five-piece feature founding members of Novembers Doom, alongside musicians from Earthen, Trials and Hurtlocker. The resulting conglomeration taps into the current taste for nostalgia, but updates early '90s death metal rather than classic thrash with powerful time travelling effects, at times. The riffs are tight, loaded toward the slow to mid-paced end of the speed scale, raw but just short of brutal. A vaguely psychedelic groove and buzzy touch of the melodic seeps in here and there, especially in the few solos, and besides emphasizing the album's intense weight, these accents make the Soundgarden cover more understandable ― These Are They's "4th of July" taps into a doom-y heaviness I'd forgotten Soundgarden even had. Accumulated, it's a solid package, but over ten tracks Who Linger starts to dilute These Are They's energy, coming off more tired than the EP, not totally revived.