First things first: Yautja is pronounced “ee-WAT-yuh,” and apparently it’s the name of the extraterrestrial race featured in the Predator series, although the word “yautja” is never actually referenced in any of the films, only in the expanded universe Predator spin-offs. The more you know…
Most importantly, this particular Yautja is a Nashville-based three-piece sludge outfit that flirts heavily with hardcore and grind. It’s not a particularly new formula, but it’s a potent one, and it’s done here with ample passion and power. Songs Of Descent is the band’s first full-length after a 2012 split with Milwaukee’s Enabler and a five-song 2011 demo, all five tracks from which are reprised on Descent in better-recorded form.
Taking the basic riff-twisting approach of early Mastodon, only making it gnarlier and uglier, Yautja dredges up the filth of NOLA sludge without the drug-spent misery or the occasional doom-bluesy undercurrent. Oh, it’s still damned, and it’s still damned harsh and ugly, but it’s a different kind of grime, an angrier nihilism more than a fatalistic self-loathing one. Still, it’s equally filthy and fierce, married here with the artillery barrage approach of the ‘cores. Opening instrumental salvo “Path Of Descent” sets up the record brilliantly, with an epic martial flair and tribal drumming that segues into “Denihilism,” one of the album’s strongest tracks, an introductory attack that is perfectly microcosmic of what’s to come.
As with many of these modern sludgy bands, vocals feel secondary to the overall attack – these voices are nondescript shouting and bellowing, credited to all three of the band’s members. A more distinctive vocal approach would certainly help matters, but with the vocals pushed back in the mix to allow the riffs to stomp and writhe in the foreground, the lack of a truly gifted throat-shredder doesn’t affect Songs Of Descent in any significantly negative manner.
With those vocals sitting back as they are, it’s clearly the riffs and the rhythms that the band is focused upon, and both are executed well. Most of Descent’s songs fly by in roughly-one-minute bursts of anger – and those are certainly delivered with conviction; they’ve got the blast-heavy, gnarled-guitars-and-distorted-bass aesthetic pretty well nailed. But Yautja really shines when the song-length stretches out and they allow themselves some compositional wanderings. Songs of Descent’s most direct and aggressive moments are quick punches and gone, but its best moments come in its longer ones, like “Denihilist.” Or in tracks like the nearly seven-minute trudger “Faith Resigned,” in the latter half of which ghostly harmonies float beneath a repeated skronking riff. Or in “A Crawl,” which sports a rock-like swagger atop Kayhan Vizari’s subterranean bass rumble until the whole thing suddenly upswings into full-on raging. Or in tracks like “Chemicals,” which is the band’s most death/grind-y segment, all blast beats and tremolo riffing that closes the album on a high note.
Sludgy filth is more typically associated with NOLA than Nashville, but it turns out there are some crusty scummy wonders lurking beneath the ABC-soap-opera sheen of Music City. One album in, and Yautja is coming on strong. If tar-caked anger makes you happy, then these guys are your newest friends in low places.
