Based out of Atlanta, Georgia comes the Doom/Sludge Metal act Sons of Tonatiuh. This self-produced debut full-length follows their Demo 2008 release, as well as a CD single recording that predates that, though not by much. For a debut release, Sons of Tonatiuh shows that the band has the chops to play some good Sludge tainted Doom Metal, but it's not really all that special an album. But, what it lacks for in jaw dropping moments, it makes up for in solid musicianship and performances throughout the release.
Thanks to the commercial success of acts like High on Fire, it seems that, as of late, bands have been toying around with the Sludge style, adding in other influences to the mix to try to create something that sounds different, yet sounds whole. That's basically what Sons of Tonatiuh have done with this recording, as the band brings in a strong Doom aspect to their Sludge Metal compositions, which take form in the slower, chugging pace of the guitars of the songs, while the drumming seems to take on a more Sludge approach, along with the more standard screaming vocal style. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, the problem is that the band sometimes has a hard time mixing the styles together, and in the end presents songs that have one section Doom Metal, another section Sludge Metal, and repeat, making the material a little rocky. The first track, "Adam and Evil", follows this type of pattern throughout the song, which makes it hard to focus on the material due to how jerky it all feels, jumping from one extreme to the other. However, the band did manage to combine the two throughout in some aspects, such as thanks to the typical Sludge distortion and screaming, so there's at least a little bit of a flow throughout the track, which would have been a strong song had the transitions been better, and the jumps to such polar extremes not as wide.
Of course, this could just be shaken off as a rocky start for the band, as Sons of Tonatiuh does seem to pick up on the next track, "Chain Up the Masses", which does blend in the Doom influence nicely with smooth transitions between the two styles, and a solid fluid flor throughout the song without feeling like you're jumping between the styles so often, but more like you're listening to a coherent mixture of the two. As the album progresses, you are greeted with songs much like this, but the overall Sludge influence to the music just doesn't really come off as all that breath taking or original, though the Doom elements on later tracks, such as "Consumed", really do bring the atmosphere down to a depressing, almost zombie-like state, which sounds great for a recording of this quality, before once again picking up in a traditional Metal fashion, though baring some Thrash-tinged fangs in the faster material then anything. There also seems to be some Stoner Metal influence in some of the material, but none as strong as the following "Den of Thieves", which starts out with riffs that anyone who has heard an early Black Sabbath release will be expecting Ozzy to start belting out some classics.
But, the main influence here stays solely on meshing Doom and Sludge together, while these other styles seem to just be thrown in throughout the album in the way the band composed the music. It's nice to have these added sounds, but in some cases, like "Den of Thieves", it just throws the balance of the album off as the band seems to contend between the Stoner Metal influence, and the Doom Metal influence. After "Den of Thieves", however, the album stays consistent with the sound that made up "Chain Up the Masses", but much of the closing four tracks seem to focus more on the Doom Metal aspect of the band's compositions, and come off as solid songs for the style they are working with, and really are the better tracks off the release because of it and how focused the band is to staying consistent to sticking with a Doom sound through slower material that gradually builds up until the end of the album.
For a debut, Sons of Tonatiuh is an alright album that shows the abilities of the band, but unfortunately finds them also struggling to define their sound one hundred percent. There's still plenty of strong tracks on this release that listeners will get wrapped up in, but between jerky transitions and jumps between styles, and also focusing on styles that really aren't the main concern of the album's structure, it gets a little lost at the start. Sons of Tonatiuh is still a band to watch out for, however, as they have the chops to write solid material.
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