Sumac have been largely hit and miss for me since after they released What One Becomes back in 2016. They have tended to develop their sound in an impressionistic and improvised direction that just didn’t do much for me and their collaborations with experimental artist Keiji Haino have been the worst offenders of this. Don’t get me wrong, as a live experience this kind of improvisation can be powerful. There’s a certain raw creativity that’s in the air and this is one of the things I suspect pulls people into improv jazz shows. For metal fans this kind of recording is understandably a tough sell though.
This new album (pauses for breath) Into This Juvenile Apocalypse Our Golden Blood to Pour Let Us Never, hereafter referred to as “Haiku album 3”, shows some signs of feeling more cohesive. Just as the naming convention itself, the previous haiku albums have felt as stunted as the poems themselves being translated into English. Haiku Album 3 instead features builds and waves of noise that sees the musicians reacting to each other in an intriguing way. Doing three albums together as an improvisational unit (and this is apparently 100% improvised with no direction decided on beforehand) seems to have made them get a feel for each other’s skills. There are a few songs that resemble post rock and slightly jazzy builds and this shows them coloring outside the lines of the established style. The question remains if this is worth hearing as a recording, without the experience of being there. For the first time I’m left a bit unsure how to answer this question. The music on here can feel very meditative so perhaps it shouldn’t be a straight no. I’m still left with the feeling that these guys could be on the cusp of something good but I’ve gotten this kinda kick better from the debut of Pyrithe earlier this year. To this album returning probably never but giving up on this kind of experimentation let’s not.
