Originally written by Chris Redar
I’ve discussed EPs as a preferable format more than once in my tenure for this fine website. For various reasons ranging from bands exhibiting a distinct dearth of meaningful material (read: involuntarily repetitive and/or clearly padded/extended for the sake of play time) to the lack of an attention span with the current generation of listener, the LP has felt as dated as the letterbox format for some time. It stands to reason that unless a band has a story to tell, they’re better off putting to reels only what can be convincingly portrayed as their vision. Otherwise– and I’m sure our longtime readers (of which there are now SEVERAL) have seen this complaint several times—you end up with this:
It gets a little bloated/repetitive/meandering towards the finish line.
The Proselyte has heard this complaint loud and clear (which I doubt is true, but if you are reading, The Proselyte, hi!) and dropped five of the best songs I’ve heard this year on their latest EP Our Vessel’s In Need. There are so many ‘If you like (band), you’ll like this’ comparisons that come to mind in the just-under twenty-four minutes provided by The Proselyte that it’s a wonder more people aren’t talking about this release. Are you a fan of early Helmet? How about Opeth’s moodier work? “End Regions” touches both bases ever so slightly before taking off for Scott Kelly’s vocal booth as they round the corner for home. “Existential Risk” plays like a much more savage version of Remission-era Mastodon.
As we were unable to secure a clip proper, here’s the shitty teaser. Hope you like soup.
The whole lot brings to mind comparison points like these, and yet this somehow doesn’t reek of derivation. That’s what is so wonderful about this short set—it feels incredibly familiar while listening, but lacks the stale stereotypes of what is typically a stale genre (it appears that the band is generally labeled ‘doom’ or ‘sludge/stoner’). One tune tops six minutes, though it doesn’t play like a sixer in the least (A “Stubborn Hem”, if you’re curious). Everything else hangs in the almost-to-slightly-over four minute range. It’s a pitfall of the new bumper crop of bands that worship at the altars of Stonudgeoom™ that tunes must last exactly as long as one joint in the hands of the oldest pothead in the circle, which is usually in the eight minute range. The Proselyte must be pipe smokers, as they drop in, do what they have to do, and are back on their pizza delivery route before you can ask if they’re dropping by after work with those brews they were talking about (they are—I asked).
So, a couple of things: Pay money for this. You won’t be disappointed. Or, rather, you might be disappointed, but I can hardly be held accountable for your awful decision to feel that way, so in that case, fuck off. Also, bands: more EPs and less filler, please. I’d like to think that a busy consumer prefers twenty-five quality minutes without sifting through another twenty-five so-so to terrible ones.
