Yob - The Great Cessation

Yob from Eugene have always made some killer music but they back with their strongest release to date." The Great Cessation " is a bit of a departure from their more Psychedelic Spacey of the previous album to one monumental slab of crushing Doom with this one.The 12-minute opening cut “Burning the Altar”takes off with a monster riff and a scream to match.It has touches of the built of aggression of the Middian days,the rhythm section of Travis Foster on drums and new bassist Aaron Reiseberg add a surprising amount deliberate energy in for a Doom band.The tracks burns for the entire 12 minutes but there is equally such strong material on the rest of the album as well.Track number two " The Lie that is Sin " has a more forward motion to it an has a more solid vocal hook.Featuring some melodic, psychedelic guitar work that adds a nice contrast to the overall heaviness and make no mistake this is one heavy album.The sound on this album seems to be darker than on their previous works,maybe the whole Middian experience forced this darker approach for Mike Scheidt & Co."Silence of Heaven" continues the album in typical epic fashion,a 9 minute masterpiece and is a bruising slow minimalistic track that takes a more Sunn O))) direction.I guess this is the odd track of the bunch and the hardest to get into but it serves as a great interlude halfway through the album." Breathing from the Shallows" at a mere 7:35 is the shortest track on the album but features some of the best guitar lines and solo work on the CD.The second half of the track is particularly brutal with all the starts and stops that show the bands power at full force.Then you get into the last track of the album which is one "Yob's" trademarks,the epic Doom piece.At 20 + minutes title track " The Great Cessation" has more twists than most bands have on a entire album.This track is less focused on heaviness than it is on atmosphere with the vocals kept clean for the duration of the piece.Once again more melody than the usual "Yob" fare is the feature of the track.Starting of fairly restrained and quiet it builds into a grand body of controlled but multi-dimensional emotional rock music proving once again that the band is beyond most other musicians in the Doom genre when it comes constructing and arranging music.The track is complex to a point but without getting pretentious,another classic epic track from "Yob" and maybe the highlight of the album.The track ends with some feedback that you really don't expect giving the context of the rest of the track.The end of the band "Middian" was a sad one but i for one are so glad "Yob" are back as this album is exceptional and proves if there is one band that we all need around its Yob !! 9/10