Wrapped in a gorgeously-designed cardboard sleeve, Winds of Revenge, the debut outing from Portuguese instru-metallers Aspen is deceptively complex. There are moments of Melvins or High on Fire worship, but there’s a considerable doom lurch that’s balanced off of, and a bit of noise angularity as well. At five songs/28 minutes, it’s well within the EP realm, but there’s a flow between these tracks that could be read as that of a full-length. They’re on the border, either way, and that seems to suit the trio, who likewise skirt the line between stoner and heavier metals, the guitar of Tiago Pereira having more crunch than fuzz and a tendency toward the intense. He and drummer Cristiano Veloso founded Aspen in 2009 and bassist Vitor Oliveira joined ahead of Winds of Revenge’s late-2011 release on Lovers and Lollypops. The tracks they present sound natural, if formative, and their presentation has clearly been thought through – opener “Arashi” is a two-plus-minute introduction that sets up the low-movement doom to come in the EP’s last two tracks, while “Autopsy Headcrush” and “Winds of Revenge,” which follow, are shorter, paced quicker and significantly less centered on ambience. What that shows is that although Aspen have the capability to bruise, they’re not always going to do it. As a result, the cymbal washes and ringing notes of “Arashi” are all the more effective for how it leads into the pummel of “Autopsy Headcrush.”

It would earn points for its title alone, but “Autopsy Headcrush” also works well within the sphere of twisting modern heaviness. The central riff from Pereira’s guitar is winding and complex, but Veloso’s crash cymbal provides an overarching groove even as his snare beats a seemingly insatiable momentum going into the title-track. Vocals aren’t necessarily missing, but they’d fit easily enough over “Winds of Revenge” – a Matt Pike snarl perhaps, or something more shouted – which is decidedly more metal but ultimately doesn’t accomplish either the kick in the ass of “Autopsy Headcrush” or the sonic breadth of “Like Crows, They Drop,” which at 9:26 is the longest cut on Winds of Revenge and longer than the first three tracks put together. Veloso’s drums start out in war-march fashion on the toms, and Pereira soon follows on the guitar and Oliveira fills out on bass, leading to start-stop chugging – the bass drum is especially full and natural – that acts as a set up for a modified version of the bridge to Sleep’s “Dragonaut,” eventually cycling through again before moving onto more complex territory, and, by the time the song is three and a half minutes in, a more shuffling groove that’s still more aligned to stoner metal than the noise rock of “Autopsy Headcrush” or “Winds of Revenge.” The Sleep riff returns at around 4:30 and acts as a transition to more chugging that ultimately gives way to a huge slowdown and the EP’s darkest stretch, with underlying feedback providing a bed for sparse droning guitar and a slow-developing doom lurch.

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