Album Review: Merlock, Onward Strides Colossus
Spokane, Washington’s Merlock tell the listener early to keep an open mind on “Sovereign Throne,” the opening track of their self-released debut album, Onward Strides Colossus. That four-and-a-half-minute leadoff is one of two songs under five minutes on the six-track/40-minute long-player, and it moves from dreamy guitar float and open crash into minimal vocals-and-bass verse lines before the swirl revives, solidifies, and moves into more fervent push in its midsection, solo layers spread overtop and feedback held as Lucas Barrey‘s drums shift into speedier, more particularly Sabbathian push. Founding guitarist/vocalist Taylor D. Waring gives hints of some of the post-Mike Scheidt soulful belting-out of vocals to come in the later reaches of second cut “Sunnbarrenn” (9:18) as well as in the penultimate “Somniloquy” (3:51) and the closing title-track (10:02), if not the harsher, sludgier barks that offset, and it’s in Andrew Backes‘ raw punch and rumble of low end on bass that the song’s weight comes from.
This is a kind of transposed take on classic power trio methodology that Merlock employ as they follow their two prior EPs, 2021’s You Cannot Be Saved EP (review here) and 2020’s That Which Speaks EP (review here), and set themselves to the task of crafting a style that is malleable enough to border on caustic at times while holding a steady commitment to atmosphere, Waring‘s guitar all the more able to work around and outside the Sleep-y march at the beginning of “Sunnbarrenn” for the strong foundation of groove in the drums and bass and the breadth that resides in the recording/mix by Nic Wilbur (indie weirdos Slashed Tires, moody punks Alien Boy, and so on), not necessarily playing to largesse as much as they could as it is creating the space in which immersion can happen and letting the layers captured ensure that it does. It’s almost not until the drums and bass drop out, the guitar sets up the next riff and Waring breaks into the album’s first real harsher post-metallic roar that one realizes just how successful they’ve been in that immersive task.
Rawness becomes an essential part of Onward Strides Colossus‘ character. As “Sunnbarrenn” proceeds with a chug like earliest High on Fire and an echoing mid-register growl from Waring to suit it, the nod shifts, flows from one part to the next with purposefully over-the-top squeals and crash, resolving in an especially stomping roll before beginning the cycle anew, clearing the air as it hits into its seventh minute and finding Backes‘ bass leading the transition into the more open payoff, Waring going back to cleaner singing before the upward swirl of the final solo, preceding an even more fervent delivery in the last verse and a few measures of comedown before a short wind-noise transition into “Behold! The Sword of Lock,” which is more immediately nasty and cavernous, clearly picking up the more aggressive aspects of “Sunnbarrenn” and pushing them further in its five-and-a-half minutes, the back and forth pattern of shorter and longer songs established for those listening digitally or on CD while the two-sided experience (currently tape, presumably modeled as well for vinyl at some point) finds the brashness of “Behold! The Sword of Lock” at the end of side A, lending it a personality perhaps more immediate than that of the second half of Onward Strides Colossus to come, although at a certain point it all might start to feel like being bashed over the head by fog, which I think is the point.
Nonetheless, “Behold! The Sword of Lock” twists and gnashes at its outset, darkly thrash but consistent with the ambience Merlock have thus far honed in the use of guitar and vocal effects, etc. At two minutes in, it slams on the brakes and nods out only to find itself winding and careening again as the vocals turn declarative over what in many contexts would be black metal, until the tension finally gives out after about another two minutes, vocals turning melodic, drums and bass stretching wider, the delay guitar casting itself into the open to close, pretty as it is punishing and delivering the listener directly into “Where No One Goes” (7:44), which is more directly post-metal and cosmic doom at once, layered vocals a part of the churning fray before the chug-march turns more brutal and makes its way toward and through the midsection.
Just past the five-minute mark, “Where No One Goes” finds its own release, echoing into the void it’s made with a return of melody as setup for a shining solo which in turn sets up the next verse lines of the payoff before the extended slowdown finish, like earliest YOB in its sheer revelry for that which is sonically massive and planetary. To complement, “Somniloquy” is more substantial than an interlude, but with the drums resting at the outset and a patient unfurling over its span, gives the listener a moment to breathe early before building into a more intense midsection with the vocals serene overhead, a wave cresting and soon enough to recede into more sublime guitar on its way out and a stretch of silence before the drone marks the turn into “Onward Strides Colossus” itself, the only piece of the record that shares its name to top 10 minutes and a song clearly positioned as a culmination of aural themes.
Like much of what precedes, the title-track feels nascent in terms of an overarching and hopefully ongoing progression, but is of marked depth, some low-register brooding vocals obscured by drones over the first couple minutes before more terrestrial guitar rises up and the slow roll begins in earnest. As with “Sunnbarrenn,” and to some extent “Behold! The Sword of Lock,” “Onward Strides Colossus” signals its changes in pace and is led by the guitar, but moves fluidly through a faster middle before at 5:40, it crashes to silence, guitar ambience and the bass once more tasked with holding it together, which it does ably. They’ll come back — they know it and you know it — but the build to get there is the point, and with a deep figurative inhale, “Onward Strides Colossus” rears up at 6:50 and transitions into its last wash of psychedelic sludge, almost encouraging the listener to dig through and find the different elements at play, whether it’s the layers of rhythm guitar under the solo or the somewhat buried tom runs from Barrey, and so on. The last procession is duly doomed, and even as “Onward Strides Colossus” ends in feedback and residual noise, the impression is both that it’s complete — nothing is missing — but that it still doesn’t necessarily want to go. It is the longest song Merlock have written to-date. Much as I hesitate at predictions, I do not think it will be their last time in the wilds north of the 10-minute mark.
And that they perhaps have more to say in “Onward Strides Colossus” is emblematic of the band on the whole at this point. As much as the soul of Onward Strides Colossus works to make the recording a part of its story, the underlying sound of Merlock is more nebulous, and that’s a big part of why it’s exciting since it seems to incorporate much without either pretense or self-ceremony. On their face, the six tracks here are as dense as they are willfully dissolute, and the impression they give is that as they continue to grow and move forward from prior lineup changes and so on, much of what’s contained in this material will be the foundation of their progress in a way not unlike how the drums and bass groove on the ground while the guitar soars over. It is a fascinating first chapter, reminiscent of much but not entirely loyal to any single microgenre, and the potential is there for Merlock over time to carve a niche of their own within the various strains of capital ‘h’ Heavy. If Onward Strides Colossus is a beginning for that process, so much the better.
When the song started I’m thinking “OK, another valium-paced doom band with echoey vocals” but man, it turned so epic! The guitar solo at the end was fantastic. Thanks for posting.