"Alas, boys... Did you see that?! We blasted through a pyramid! But at least those camels survived. Well, nothing lasts forever in the sands of time anyway... Except the craving for the spice..."

Frank Herbert's "Dune" and doom/stoner metal. Yeah, suits. Sand and the powers of nature. The nature works way slower than us humans, and that is how Sandbreaker work. The songwriting is kind of simplistic yet it is not. Sandbreaker also do some of the shortest doom metal songs under the sun. Anyway, songs can have have kind of, if not droning, but ritualistic vibe. Each song contains mutating riffs, that have more or less alterations during these 3-5 minute cycles. There are heavy groovy parts somewhat similar to early Cathedral or Reverend Bizarre for example, but in slow motion; not in funeral pace, though. Less groovy, sludgy elements are also onboard this desert ship. Some extra... ehm... spices give nice detail, especially those weird alien sounds closing this EP. We have a contact! There's a short brass section bit, too.

I find longer, more varied songs a bit more interesting. The main reason is that riffs aren't really as good as "killer", so to speak, but mutations do amend for that trait. 'Spice Harvester' especially tends to make my mind wander, in a wrong way. At best, though, this is really kind of ritualistic and does keep its listener well occupied. And makes one's mind wander to the desert planet Arrakis. By the way, I find some of the lyrics to be metaphors about our own planet, that is getting warmer and might be turning into a desert one.

The guitar sound is slowly, brutally and loudly buzzing. The bass guitar is clanking and banging. The drums are powerful and sound organic. About the drumming: The longer songs have that "okay, I've done loads of these (tom drum) rolls, when I can go into a beat?!" build-up thing somewhere in them, the short ones go straight into action. The production job is rather fine in general, suiting well with the style of the band. The vocals are about low, sandblasted growl.

The shortness of this left me wanting for more of this cool pseudo-simplistic and deep-as-a-blackhole doom/stoner-craft. There must be more to this band, I bet. "We got the spice! Let's get ready to navigate to the next destination..."

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
02/07/2020 12:52