Century – Black Ocean

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Heavy metal has evolved so much in the last ten years in terms of how heavy bands have pushed the art form. There seems to be no boundary that hasn’t already been beaten down already in that department. The trick is really taking the abrasive attitude and applying it to your songwriting in an interesting and effective manner. Too many younger bands pile in 200 riffs in a song and try and pass it off as something of actual substance. Fortunately for us, Lancaster, PA’s Century has honed their chops enough to be heavy while structuring their assault in a cohesive package. Their waves of dissonant guitar riffs bubble out of the speakers with equal amounts of bite and atmosphere and they always make sense within the arrangement of the song. Everything falls into place and with a pummeling this tough, that is saying a lot! Their debut for Prosthetic Records, Black Ocean, is the sound of a band firing on all cylinders.

Jason Baker and George Fava’s guitar work reminds me of early 90’s bands like Kiss It Goodbye and Acrid while still retaining a modern flavor within the bigger picture. The polyrhythmic riffing on the great “Pantheon” is proof enough that this guitar team is a force to be reckoned with. They also show off a more fluid, discordant style on “Equus” further cementing their might. I read a review the other day where the writer ripped on Century’s vocalist, Carson Slovak calling them too “screamy.” Yeah, Slovak does scream a lot, but it’s hard to imagine a more fitting marriage when you have the beds of distortion that canvas the tracks on this album. Besides, the guy does a more than capable job throughout the tracks. He also has a great sense of cadence in his vocal runs that adds a propulsive meter to the already energetic tempos. The one thing that I walked away from after my initial listening of Black Ocean was the unlikely combination of aggression and melancholy the material had. There is a European vibe to the essence of the songs but with an American sensibility to it somehow. It’s tough to put it into words really, but the band has done something fresh and invigorating here.