Another album mixed by Kurt Ballou at God City Studios, Generation Of Vipers’ album, Howl And Filth (Golden Antenna), is a brutalizing amalgamation of sludge and doom that wields the trademark God City sound.

Opening with ‘Ritual’, the Knoxville, Tennessee act dives right in with a slow gallop. When the guitars really dial in, the heaviness unfolds. A thick, massive sound fills the air; the throaty, menacing guitars are extremely heavy, Josh Holt’s vocals have real urgency and raspiness to them. ‘Ritual’ punches along this path, ranging from the obscenely thick sound to something quieter, like a smoke-filled room’s dense atmosphere. ‘Silent Shroud’ sets off on the right foot — Generation Of Vipers waste no time in raining blows down on the listener in the form of these distorted guitars. These fuzz-laden sounds mix together with unearthly heavy bass. When the act slows things down, layers of texture pour over, giving off a sound that has not only serious bite to it, but contains a post-rock flavor.

‘All of This is Mine’ is largely a piano track, with some background noise sprinkled in. A violin plays a chilling tune. Some airy vocals hauntingly speak, behind all of the instruments. The vocals are almost inaudible, but they don’t need to be heard, only recognized. ‘Eternal’ brings much of the same intensity and similar styles of songwriting. There’s not a whole lot of deviation from track to track. It’s the same formula, endlessly repeating, and suffocating the listener in the process.

Even if Generation Of Vipers doesn’t deviate from their formula of relentlessly heavy assaults, it’s not exactly the worst thing. The layers upon layers of guitarwork and drum tracks do wonders for the music, even if it isn’t the most painstakingly original piece of music. The most original doesn’t always equate into the best, and sometimes little tweaks to a genre do great things for a band. Generation of Vipers have a sound that it’s easy to tell they worked it over, and made little adjustments here and there. Those adjustments just happen to pay off.

8/10

Bill Haff

Generation Of Vipers – Facebook