Black Sheep Wall come from California. It is clear from the first notes that in sound terms their music is the polar opposite of the Beach Boys. The constant and ominous drum, big ponderous chords and paint-stripping vocals suggest this band is a cousin of Neurosis and Cult of Luna.

So the album begins and continues in a deep, dark and doomy vein. This isn’t going to speed up for anyone, nor is it going to get any lighter. Guitar and drums combine as musical hammer drills. There is progression, albeit of a crushing and sinister kind. It’s relentless but ok to listen to. That was the opening track “Agnostic Demon”. The next two tracks washed over me somewhat, and I found myself waking up to another continuum of monotone ponderous roars and overwhelming heaviness. This is “BlackChurch”. Polish people have a saying “Even the harshest winter passes away”. Not here. You can only rip stomachs out once however and Black Sheep Wall did it on the first track. Since then it is the same, barring an odd section of industrial sampling at the end of “Black Church” and the start of the next track ”Torrential”. The default position is lead-heavy funereal Post Metal sludge. It’s hypnotic and repetitive. The album intensifies in its mid-section and becomes more melancholic. It’s like a slow, lingering death. The repetitive riff is of the “staring into space” variety. “No Matter Where It Ends” has pretensions to being the darkest, most funereal metal album, yet there is movement. Is it melody? No. And so to “Ambient Ambitions”. The journey through treacle continues. The wall of sound is constant. So are the roars. The pace is steady. We hear bucket loads of bass and occasionally the plaintive guitar but it’s not going anywhere, even slowly.

There is momentary respite as the sounds of industrial processes of the earlier “Black Church” return. There’s throbbing in the background. This must be the sludge metal equivalent of the instrumental. Distortions abound. It sounds terminal. The motorbike heads off into the distance. Is that traffic or waves? This is “Cognitive Dissonance”. Interesting. We return to type and the overwhelming sludge/doom of “Personal Prophet”. It’s painful but it’s supposed to be. Progress is mechanical. “Flesh Tomb” closes the album. It slows to a crawl. A drum solo seems to see it out but there’s movement. I realised however that no industrially orientated sound distortions were going to win me over. In interest terms, this album had died for me a while back.

“No Matter Where It Ends” is ok if you like unlimited heavy sludge. Undoubtedly there is atmosphere here and technically there’s nothing wrong with it but personally I found this album too lacking in the variety department to inspire me.

www.myspace.com/blacksheepwallmusic 

(4/10 Andrew Doherty)