Lord Dying - Summon The Faithless

Published July 20 2013

*=Staff's pick	In A Frightful State Of Gnawed Dismemberment* Summoning The Faithless* Greed Is Your Horse Descend Into External Dreams Of Mercy* Perverse Osmosis Water Under A Burning Bridge What Is Not… Is

Genre	Sludge Metal	Jonathan Reid/Erik Olson	Vocals
Tracks	8	Chris Evans	Guitar
Running time	40 Min.	Erik Olson	Guitar
Label	Relapse Records	Don Capuano	Bass
Release	08 July 2013	Jonathan Reid	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	-
Similar artists	High On Fire, Mastodon

The heavy rhythms and sheer force of High On Fire combined with the intricate melodies of Mastodon. That is how I briefly would describe how Summon The Faithless sounds. It is the first album from Oregon sludge metallers Lord Dying, released after touring the US with renowned bands such as Ghost and Down.

The first two songs are a strong start to the album, with heavy riffs and some guitar melodies that remind me of technical American death metal bands such as Dying Fetus. The rhythm section is the foundation upon which the guitars roam, without straying too much from the slow, chugging sludge groove. However, I don't know if it's actually because the first two songs are the best or because most of the songs sound pretty similarly, but from the third song and onwards I have troubles keeping my interest up. Furthermore, apart from seemingly have been written by the same formula, most of the songs are in pretty much the same tempo.

Overall I would say that Summon The Faithless is an okay album with many good components - when the riffs are good they are indeed pretty darn good, Dreams Of Mercy being an excellent example of this. At the same time some other things aren't really top notch - I can't say that the vocals are anything special and many drum fills sound a little underwhelming.

So, although there are some things I really enjoy with Summon The Faithless, I get the feeling that I'm listening to the same song over and over and I quickly lose interest. Similarly with High On Fire's and Mastodon's first albums, Summon The Faithless strikes me as something of a rough diamond. While it might not be a great album in itself, it shows promise for the future.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	6	7	5	5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Bjorn