HAGGATHA - IV
2012
Choking Hazards - Blind Date
Vancouver's Haggatha are back with another monster slab. Like its title suggests, this is the 4th release of the band, but only the 2nd full length. Last year, they offered us the excellent III, a 2-song, 8-minutes long 7". They also toured intensively, spreading their dirty sludge all across America and Europe alike. Beside touring and releasing albums, they've also spent time with other projects, as drummer Matt is also a new Bison B.C. member.
What is the result? Well, the Haggatha signature is still recognizable, there is still an Eyehategod influence, and still the same crushing, doomy tempo, with a saturated guitar distortion and minimal 'primal scream' vocals. However, rather than doing Haggatha II part II, they came out with a slightly different formula. On the production level, it's less muddy (especialy in terms of low frequency), and there seems to be a new hierarchy of instruments. On II, guitars were at the forefront of the music; on IV, it's the drum that prevails. In fact, this instrument seems to be leading all way through the new album. It hits a lot harder, and nails the sludgy grooves more closely than before.
The album starts with four songs of average length (between 3 and 6 minutes), and ends with a stunning 18-minutes mastodon. Side A of the vinyl (the four first songs) are more focused than before. They are of average tempo and very catchy. There are no huge variation of tempo (like III) or atmosphere (like II), just a sheer hit on the skull. A case in point, the opening riff of "Precession of the Equinox" easily sticks into your head, while "Codependence", with its lead guitar detour, is probably one of the best crafted song the band ever wrote.
On side B we find something unusual for Haggatha. They dared venturing on the path many doom bands took in recent years, and wrote a very long song, "Epoch". To make it epic and to make it stand out from the rest of their songs, the band very cleverly adopted a minimalistic approach. This works very well, while offering the album something fresh and different.
The artwork is also worthy of mention. Like the music, it bears the same Haggatha theme with the logo on the cover. This time, a bas-relief of it was created and placed in a variety of dirty, earthy textures. The pictures are used inside and outside the beautiful gatefold vinyl, while a very plain 16-pages booklet contains minimal information (10 pages are plain black), such as lyrics and credits.
Simply put, it is my favorite Haggatha album to date.
Get the album on mp3 and vinyl by following these links:
http://haggatha.bandcamp.com/album/haggatha-iv
http://chokinghazardrecords.blogspot.ca/
