Eugene, Oregon's Mike Scheidt has re-assembled an entirely new three-piece band with a new name, taking up the gauntlet laid down by the breakup of YOB last year. Honestly, it will be difficult for most YOB fans to tell the difference between this MIDDIAN disc and Scheidt's former band. Four of the songs on this disc pass the 9+ minute mark. There's plenty of clean wah and high-end vocals from Scheidt colliding with subsonic roars, both musically and vocally (courtesy of new low-end bass and vocal man Will Lindsay). Of course, there are plenty of vast, crashing waves of dissonant guitar and crawling monster riffs.

What's different is the attack. MIDDIAN's assault is more concise, sharper, and less psychedelic than YOB's extended jams. "Dreamless Eye" sounds like an elephant smashing through a building, crashing drums, lumbering bass, etc. "The Blood of Icons" is perhaps the closest track to an actual YOB song to be found here. Three minutes of low-key echoes are swallowed by an enormous wall of sound enveloping everything. "The Celebrant" is the shortest song on the disc, the most potent, and the most vibrant indicator of MIDDIAN's new direction, with jagged metallic riffs that wouldn't sound out of place on a MASTODON record. "Sink to the Center" closes things out with a near 16-minute epic that blossoms from one Buzzo-like bass note into a towering wall of deafening sludge.

All in all, very satisfying. Perhaps a bit of brevity, and sharper aggression when compared to the earlier YOB records. The question still looms, will MIDDIAN make an album that rivals "Elaborations of Carbon"? "Age Eternal" proves Scheidt has plenty left in the tank, so anything's possible.

- Marchman

OFFICIAL SITE: www.middian.org

RELATED ITEMS: No related articles at this time.