A couple of years ago I reviewed Bison’s sophomore album for our legacy site Metal Team UK and was extremely impressed by the bands super heavy, super rich heavy metal that was inundated with reams of Sabbath like atmosphere. 2012 sees the Canadians remaining steadfast within heavy metal stakes but transforming the word super into incredibly on this third album. Bison’s songs go through a metamorphic like conversion from sublime melodious guitar work to monstrous riff infections that are particularly inventive. Similarities to Mastodon, Baroness and other stoner/groove outfits are inevitable but with Bison B.C. the emphasis is on writing flawlessly dense music that interlaces texture with substance uniformly. For Bison B.C. it’s all about the riffs, nothing more nothing less.

Kicking this album off is “An Old Friend” which builds steadily after the nice guitar harmonising that eventually and gradually switches its riff style to a more distorted tone with accompanying harsh vocal barks. Vocals aren’t what Bison B.C. are about preferring to use them sporadically and for emphasis rather than a distraction because there isn’t anything else to latch onto. I was definitely taken to a more underground sense with someone like Earthship being a good example for comparison with the stoner like groove. The increase in pace is gritty, with plenty of angst being injected into the song. I did think that this album feels more urgent, raucous and possessing an evil charm within the doom soaked ethos demonstrated in the charmingly titled “Anxiety Puke / Lovelessness”.

The spacey and airy sequence that starts “Last Things First” has a trippy feel in some sense with a temperate drum beat and guitar piece drifting in alongside the soft bass work that caresses in the background. Aggression comes in the form of a domineering guitar tone modification with screamed vocals threatening strip the skin off your own throat such is their raw choking feel. As I mentioned the vocals are as scarce as finding a crust punk at a glam rock gig as this tune drops its aggression for a damn fine riff that is just bloody great. Then just when you thought the song was done with plying you with riffs, in comes another and here I was moved to note the likes of The Ocean for the textural progressiveness in the guitar work.

“Blood Music” is a massive ten minute plus epic that creates a sonic incursion on the senses with low end reverb bouncing against the fuzz box like guitar work that is laced with intricate shifts in pitch, but all done with the fluidity of ice on ice. Shortest song is “Clozapine Dream” which is noticeably faster and rife with distortion effects, but is powerful enough to undermine building foundations with its sludge like invasion. The massive riffs of this album end on the closing tune “Finally Asleep” a misleadingly titled tune compared to what the tune actually impales the listener with as Bison B.C. shows why they have the knack and ingenuity to write addictive and thoroughly absorbing songs brimming with mood, courtesy of the sublime guitar work. Can’t wait to see band on tour again.

 (8.5/10 Martin Harris) 

http://www.facebook.com/bisonbc