As I prepared for an upcoming Crowbar/Eyehategod concert earlier this year, I was listening to all sorts of other sludge-y doom-y bands and albums; Armed for Apocalypse, Tarlung, Soilent Green, Yellowtooth, Black Royal, and such.
Then a promo came across my desk that touted Statement of Wills as ‘for fans of Doom metal, hardcore, 90s death metal and the New Orleans sludge sound‘. So I grabbed it, and then, as a bonus, found out the band was founded by Derek Kovacs, who founded one of my very favorite 00s hardcore bands, Built Upon Frustration. He’s joined by Bob McSherry on drums and Jake Morris on bass.
The promotional description is pretty spot on, except I’m not getting much 90s death metal. This is a sort of doomy, sludgy hardcore that does have some Crowbar-ism, but you can also hear Kovacs’ hardcore roots, with the riffs and his bellow that are reminiscent of his Built Upon Frustation days.
The guitars are nice and beefy, delivering simple, stout riffs that come across as a slightly moody, doom-ish version of Kovac’s hardcore days. But that said, none of it really sticks or hits hard, lacking some of the emotional and actual sonic heft of a Crowbar, etc.
There are some decent riffs like opener “Visibility”, ‘Two Worlds” or the closer “Light The Way”. They try to get a little more draining on “Existence Denied” and “High Above”, where there are some cleaner croons, but it doesn’t quite land. And that sums up the album. It’s decent and something I’ll listen to as background music, but there’s nothing here that pulls me back, demanding I listen to it again, beyond reviewing purposes.
