Black Skies – On the Winds of Time (2011)

Hailing from the USA, we have another Sludge band that sounds exactly like everybody else and that it is making its debut full-length statement with “On the Winds of Time”. So why should we not say this is total crap and skip to the next album we have to review? Well, because there is just a little something that makes them a bit interesting to listen to.

Combining a very organic sound, this record sounds like it was recorded during a rehearsal in a live fashion. The guitars are crunchy, but not over produced and neither over stylized that you can’t really make this sounds in a natural way. The drums are very raw, and while basic and amateurish sounding at times, they sound legit and fit very well with the music.

On the downside, the songs are very repetitive (yeah we know it is Sludge, but they sound even more repetitive than that), the vocals are very deficient and funky sounding (probably better off without them), and the band does sound a lot like Black Cobra, etc, etc. But on the bright side, there are very promising elements here and there (the tangy Southern feeling to begin with) that made us keep listening to this album.

The riffing in some songs (“Technologicon”, “Valley of the Kings” and “Earth Choker”) is pretty decent and some points it had us fully engaged in the band’s music. The song structures are pretty ok, and while repetitive at times, they are bearable. The whole natural ‘jam-session’ vibe this release gives is probably what made us not completely trash this album and decide they suck. Many other bands feel very calculated and Black Skies has a very different vibe from them.

While we liked some elements of this release, in general, it is very poor and probably needed some more cooking before being unleashed to the public. However, this album will hopefully show in the future how much did Black Skies evolved into being a very proficient Sludge band signed to Southern Lord or somebody like that (we hope!), but until then listen to this release under the advise that is not extremely good.

Release: December 7th, 2011

Country: USA