Bands like Terminus make me wish I had taken up an instrument much earlier in life. I was initially pretty impressed by their self-titled debut, and even more so when I found out that at the time of its release (October last year), their oldest member was 18. Talented bastards.
After the album’s first track, “Gardens”, I was almost ready to write Terminus off as Baroness-worship – although to their credit, it is excellent Baroness-worship. Some moments and vocal cadences would be able to slip into Red Album’s “Wanderlust” completely unnoticed. But I’m glad I persisted as the next few tracks proved me very wrong. While sharing similar sludge metal characteristics, as well as pop sensibilities, Terminus take the listener on a very different journey.
The album continues onto “Leatherneck”, flaunting gargantuan riffs with a stoner rock vibe not unlike Kyuss. The vocals on this track range from black metal snarls to whisky-drenched rock-and-roll choruses. After “Leatherneck” concludes with a dirty fuzzed out solo, “Seven” throws a curveball and greets the listener with gentle arpeggios and pop-punk vocal melodies that wouldn’t be out of place in Coheed and Cambria.
This results in a unique juxtaposition to the sludge metal grooves they are soon paired with. Unexpectedly, the album then transitions to a fairly catchy indie-rock movement. Instrumental “An Ocean of Its Own’” returns to sludgier waters, opening with an assault of thunderous toms before diving deep into mind-bending prog rock guitar lead territory. “Runelords”, the last full track, adds to this already diverse mix with riffs no doubt inspired by Crack the Skye era Mastodon and just a bit of hardcore punk.
As a whole, the album feels very dynamic and multi-faceted. While it is clear that Terminus have a lot of influences across various genres, these are often mixed seamlessly and held together with sludge metal glue. As a result, no two tracks sound quite the same.
For example, it is rare that a vocal style will appear on more than one song in the album. Some listeners might see this as being quite experimental but it could be viewed as inconsistency. Some tracks occasionally feel a little derivative but the band has still forged an identity of its own. As the band matures, I’d love to see a bit more cohesion and hear them nail down a style that is truly theirs.
Nonetheless, Terminus is an incredibly solid debut devoid of any filler and is a testament to why the band has already been opening for prolific acts such as Kylesa. If you’re a fan of any metal remotely sludgy, you’d be doing yourself a disservice not giving Terminus’ self-titled a spin.
Terminus can be streamed in full and purchased from the band’s Bandcamp profile.
