Kosmokoma - Steak Number Eight
Steak Number Eight hail from Belgium, and on Kosmokoma, their third album, have produced a unique sound, that seems to blend Post-Rock, Progressive, Sludge and Technical Death Metal, into a very attractive musical proposition. Touchingly the band's unusual name is a tribute by guitarist and singer Brent Vanneste to his deceased brother, referring to a song title of his brother’s metal band Voidpoint.
Return of the Kolomon is a stunning opener with breakneck drumming and a beautiful swirling guitar motif, that has a huge emotional and atmospheric kick to it. The Death Metal like screams add a palpable sense of menace to the Math Rock type precision of the music, creating one great song to open an album with!
Your Soul Deserves to Die Twice (what an amazing title!) begins with a crisp rolling drum pattern, accompanied by some precise and hard-hitting riffing. The refrain of 'this is the place where your soul deserves to die’ is sung almost romantically, in stark contrast to the moody instrumental atmosphere, which has a fabulous twisting King Crimson like middle section.
Charades with its ambient noise introduction, has some lovely opening pensive vocals and beautiful acoustic guitar chords, which offer a more melancholic and yearning mood, before the band turn up the dial again with some awesome progressive riffs and death metal screams. Knows Sees Tells All has a great introductory guitar hook, leading into a more doom like song, that has a great tense build up, leading into an ear splitting and edgy sludge metal conclusion. An awesome song!
An excellent album, that is inventive, powerful, and quite beautiful on some tracks. The production by David Bottrill, who has worked with Tool and King Crimson, is impressive and peerless. Listen in and you wont be disappointed.