Desert Psychlist has to admit to nor being familiar with Tampa, Florida's The Path before they were brought to our attention by one of our fellow Doom Charts contributors but we can assure you we will be keeping an eye on them from here on in. The band, Joe Kiser (vocals/guitar); Joey Kiser (guitar/vocals); Gregg Moore (bass) and Phil Stanwick (drums), make a noise together that is a little bit doomy, a little bit progressive and a little bit sludgy post metallic but is at all times wholly impressive. The Path are of course a heavy band but not heavy in a brutalising way, creeping and atmospheric would be a better way of trying to explain The Path's sound, a sound that doesn't so much batter you as slowly envelope you in a miasma of insidious dankness. The band, unbeknown to us, already had one release under their belts with the three song self-titled EP "The Path"(2019) but it is their latest full length album "Shadow Helix" that we are here to talk about today and talk about it we will.
The opening/title track "Shadow Helix" is an insidious blend of swampish haziness and dank bluesiness anchored to the ground by grizzled bass and driven by powerful busy drumming around which the guitars weave a highly impressive tapestry of thrumming refrains and fractured chord voicings. Things get even more insidious and creepy with the arrival of the vocals which sees husky crooning trading off with throaty guttural harshness and imparting knowledge of "altered states" and "distant realms". "Breathless" follows and sees The Path serving up a doomic version of grunge's quiet/loud/quiet dynamics, the songs quieter moments possessing a hazy ebb and flow its louder moments thunderous and crunchy. Third track "Endless Wells" is a sublime slice of progressive doom underscored with elements of post-metal and heavy psych decorated in a delicious blend of vocal tones, whispers and roars, that add an extra layer of atmosphere to a song already not lacking in that particular commodity. Penultimate track "The Flow" flits between gnarled sludge/stoner metal and hazy acidic doom, a real barnburner of a tune that is tight and crushing when it needs to be and languid and loose when it doesn't. The Path close their account with "The Axis (Of Past and Present)" a throbbing monster of a song that twins circular post metal guitar textures with chugging doomic riffage over a thunderous bass and drum backdrop decorated in an array of differing vocal harshness.
Despite what some may think heavy metallic music does not always have to be crushing and impenetrable, heavy music is often at its best when it incorporates layers of colour and texture in its grooves and has a propensity for veering off on tangents into unexpected territories If you find yourself sagely nodding along in agreement to that previous sentence and have been searching for an album that ticks all those relevant boxes then The Path's "Shadow Helix" might be just the album you've been looking for.
Check it out ...
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