You’ve missed; there’s a hollow place in your bones that craved the thrumming, the beating, the pulsing, menacing rhythm of it all. You know what we’re talking about: roiling, angry metal that takes no prisoners, conjured up from the depths of an acidic stomach. The riffs go hard and keep going, the vocals play no games, instead focusing on getting you into the right mindset. And the groove section? Well the groove sections bites your head off. To satiate that lust, that unique itch that only such music can reach, we bring you Sanzu, we bring you massive orchestrations, towering riffs and an overwhelming, crushing aesthetic.
You might be unconvinced by the first two tracks, to your detriment. They are perhaps a bit subtler than the other tracks, but no matter; the third track, ‘Ubiety’ is here to deliver the message loud and clear. It opens with a bottomless pit of a riff, supporting harsh vocals before giving over to a more melodic composition. All of this only hint at the influences that Sanzu are overflowing with but around the two and a half minute mark, those get worn right on their sleeve: Gojira-level riffing makes its appearance, drawing most on their The Way of All Flesh. So, expect a modern day sound, with the bass dominating the background and the guitars overlaid on top.
The next series of tracks, starting from ‘Tailor’ all the way up to ‘Awaken’, will turn those Gojira influences up to eleven. ‘Tailor’ introduces those pick sweeps we all knew were coming, while ‘Awaken’ has a repeating, gigantic riffs that reminds us of The Link. However, can we chalk down Sanzu to simply a Gojira worship band? While those segments of their music are well executed, it would be disappointing if that’s all these obviously talented musicians had to offer us. The answer, luckily for us is no. After ‘Awaken’, the band allows itself to stray a bit further from the common path, introducing new elements into their music that makes the album much more than just a tribute piece.
The title track is where it all starts. The vocals are the first point of departure: they become much more frayed, higher in pitch and in tempo, than Duplantier has ever sung them. This adds a sense of urgency to the entire track, elevating the heaviness by lending it a feeling of a pursuit or a decline into madness. This is followed by the immensely slower ‘Loss’, again using variations on the earlier themes to inject something a little variant, an aberration in the formula that keeps us engaged and attentive. Over all of this rests the last track, ‘Colourblind’, an ambient, chilling track that perhaps set the stage for introspection after all that we’ve been through.
When all’s been said, ‘Heavy Over the Home’ is a hard-hitting album that uses a classic metal band as its point of departure. While it never quite breaks from its source material, that doesn’t prevent it from being an engaging and interesting album. It manages this by small permutations, a different take on the established course of events. That hollow place in your bones, that pit in the bottom of your stomach recognizes these shifts and reacts well. The album leaves us satiated, fulfilled and purged of our anger. It lies before us, well exemplified and purified in the music itself.
Sanzu – Heavy Over the Home gets…
4/5
-EK