• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

Jul 15, 2013 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

Ultraviolet, the sixth album from Savannah-based heavies Kylesa, took two years to write, and brings with it a democratic shift in band dynamics. Its members now play the roles of multi-instrumentalists, and singer Laura Pleasants—who shares vocal duties with Phillip Cope—positions herself closer to center stage here than in previous outings. Despite these myriad weapons and extended gestation, the record sounds like a half-step backward, and feels like a more straightforward endeavor than the band’s genre-straddling, far-out Spiral Shadow. While that album soared and plummeted with unexpected twists, Ultraviolet barrels through track after gut-punching track with aggressive energy, in a style closer to the band’s earlier career than the high water mark they’d set in 2010. This retreat will be welcomed by some listeners, who prefer their sludge with less of the proggy flair—You got your Rush in my Sabbath! You got your Sabbath in my Rush!—and we’ll agree that the artists who can’t master the hybrid best stay the hell away. But, Kylesa had pulled it off with Spiral Shadow, and much of what that last record promised for this band’s future seems almost forgotten here. The purists can go ahead and rejoice, but forgive us our nagging disappointment. (www.kylesa.com)

Author rating: 6.5/10