Marijuana, alcohol, gambling—these are Traditional Addictions. I've remained abstinent from these three; music is my addiction, corny as it may be. If I can't go a day without my metal fix, I don't want to know what'll happen to my mental health. Canada's Yeti On Horseback go much darker on their second LP, however, bringing forth another record of drawn-out atmospheres and crushing environments In a mixture of sludge, doom, and everything drab.
Traditional Addictions isn't a "celebration of life"; it's a pained spit to the grave of the subject at a pitiful, minimalistic gathering. The album's opener, "Drug Addict," is a blunt offering that spans thirteen minutes and isn't even the lengthiest track. I can't safely tell whether it's romanticizing or looking down upon the addict in question. By the screams, the rapid breathing, the repetitiveness of the plodding tempo, the ending feedback and detailing of the habitual spiraling consequences of addiction, I'm inclined to say it's negative.
Note: The video for "Drug Addict" starts with ELEVEN MINUTES of extra sampling and whatever. The album version pertains to the regular fourteen.
Closer "Erotic Goth Dad" may have a seemingly out-of-place name, but it's the heaviest and most expansive piece, constituting the band's self-proclaimed opus. While it played out, I took a closer inspection at the album artwork: Conjoined twins, a lobster, a mortar and pestle, a seahorse, and a patient with a severe tumor are just some of the items plastered around the band name and album title. If they all have something in common, it's completely cryptic, and the answer isn't found in the fourteen minutes of crescendoing, psychedelic metal in the closing track, either. It's a trip all in its own, and obdurate in its harshness and solidity, with post-metal shining delicately in the song's waning minutes.
Only two, nine-minute songs bridge the gap between "Drug Addict" and "Erotic Goth Dad". On these tracks, Yeti On Horseback proves to be clever with atmospheric play, with "Through With This Flesh" supplying enough to cover the opener two times over. Vocalists "R.P." and "S.M." experiment with layered vocals, which are most prominent in this track. Blackened metal snarls fight with strained wails, achieving more than a song 1.4-times longer. "Mariner's Lament" is the weaker link between the two, relying more laboriously on ambience than upfront brutality. Nevertheless, these two cuts are greatly welcomed among, as the forty-seven-minute-long runtime probablywouldn't be as palatable as a two-song recording.
In spite of its title, Traditional Addictions is hard to immediately acclimate to. It isn't the most accessible doom-laced metal up for listening, and it may take a while for the looping, chunky start to envelop you, but Traditional Addictions is a drug in doom metal form, with each sustained guitar strum just another needle on the curb.