Category: Kylesa

Kylesa – To Walk a Middle Course

ARTIST: Kylesa                                        220px-To_Walk_a_Middle_Course

TITLE: To Walk a Middle Course

YEAR RELEASED: 2005

CHART ACTION: None

SINGLES: None

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Only the metalheads know, unfortunately.

LINEUP: Phillip Cope, Laura Pleasants, Corey Barhorst, Brandon Baltzley

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Second album from sludge-alt-new-whatever metal combo melts some damn faces off.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Sure, they shout instead of singing (for the most part), which could lessen its appeal to the wimpier, but dang it, this cooks.

Adding Laura Pleasants’ voice into the yowl by Phillip Cope (or Corey Barhorst) helps break up the monotony and adds tension. The star here though are the riffs, and the feel. Cope and Pleasants rip through riffs, and the production adding quieter parts and samples also bring balance.

Yeah, it’s still a bit monotonous – all of those killer riffs can run together – but in small-to-medium doses, your face will melt.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: Between their debut and this, they released a few very limited edition 7” singles.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No

GRADE: B+:  I can’t quite get there with an A-, because of some of the monotony, but for metal heads wanting something powerful and non-generic, this is a good one.

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Kylesa – Kylesa

ARTIST: Kylesa Kylesa_self-titled_album_2002
TITLE: Kylesa
YEAR RELEASED: 2002
CHART ACTION: No
SINGLES: None
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Into Southern Doom / Stoner Metal? Maybe. Otherwise…
LINEUP: Phillip Cole, Laura Pleasants, Brian Duke, Christian Depken
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Savannah sludge-doom metal pioneers overcome personal tragedy to finish debut album.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Kylesa’s first album is more doom / sludge metal than psychedelic sludge metal, even though there are some elements of that in there. But the real story is the story behind the record.

Three of the four members of Kylesa were in a previous band, and they changed into Kylesa and started to record their debut album. They played their first show as Kylesa in June, 2001 and four days later bass player Duke was dead from an epileptic seizure.

They pushed on to honor Duke and finished the record with a stand-in bass player. In 2002, it was released and their career in the sludge / psychedelic branch of doom metal took off.

There’s lots of good riffage here, which is what you want from bands like this. There’s not a lot of variety, but it’ll do to get your sludge on. It’s just incredible that they finished the record after what happened.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: Cole, Duke and Depken were in Damad before mutating it into Kylesa.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No

GRADE: B-: It has some good riffs and good moments and considering everything else, it’s a good debut.