Couldron - Four Winds Review by John Pegoraro (StonerRock.com) Self Released Release date: 2006
The EP follow-up to Couldron's self titled debut eases up on some of their more overt Jesus Lizard/Unsane tendencies and – stick with me – injects some melody. Not that the five songs on Four Winds are pretty, rather, the Chicago-based band is doing more than just relying on a sonic bludgeoning to get its point across. Song like “Four Winds,” “The Witness,” and “Fear for Waking” are heavy, but there's also a surprising amount of grace to them. “Accomplished” can come across as a back-handed compliment, but it's meant only in the positive in this case. The band's been lauded for being one of the underground's better known secrets, and while there's nothing quite as massive sounding as “Fallen” (from their debut) on Four Winds, there's also nothing here that's going to ruin their reputation.
Four Winds is definitely a progression from their excellent debut, which was rawer in s t y l e. These guys absolutely slay live, and their newer songs show even more of an evolution while retaining the endless riff-barrage that has become the Couldron sound.
Couldron is gritty, post-apocalyptic, post-metal that definitely seems traceable to Godflesh in heritage, but is also very AmRep-ish in many ways. The riffing and vocals have an early Helmet thing going on, while the double-paced, snare-flavored drum rollups work with the simple song changeups, melding into a sludgy ambience reminiscent of early Unsane and Today Is The Day. There's also a doom-fed boom to the amplification leading more to the ethereal, tone-heavy stoner collective. I'm sure I'd dig it quite a bit more if the demo didn't sound like the band recorded it in the room next to the one with the mics in it, as it's all quite muffled sounding. As numbingly simple as every sequence and structure of the release is, it's an entertainingly suffocating concoction that fans of Meatjack, early Crowbar, Rwake and the like should be able to digest.
