Albums sometimes communicate things to me before I have even heard it. Sometimes this is done via the promo blurb telling me very directly what I am supposed to think about an album. Other times, a combination of album cover, album and track titles and the likes can project an image of a band and how they sound. While more casual metal listeners often sneer about anything that pushes beyond the 5 minute mark, colossal song lengths might also communicate to seasoned metal listeners that the album at hand is advanced listening or at least making an attempt at being a more profound, distinguished work. Ploughshare started their career making blackened death metal that rivaled the intensity of grind — a style often called war metal, although I would not consider Ploughshare to be a very representative act of the genre. Songs on debut record In Offal, Salvation were often around the two to three minute mark, with a couple breaking the 5 minute barrier. It was a quick, experimental ride with unexpected shifts in approach to riffing, harmonic density and speed that made the album an enjoyable oddball listen. Since then, through the release of two EP’s, Ploughshare have inflated their song lengths considerably. Second Wound only consists of five tracks, 2 of which are around the ten minute mark with two of them breaking it — but what do these inflated song lengths actually mean?
Ploughshare indeed seem like they are looking for a more distinguished, developed sound. The black metal is upped, as is a penchant for industrial synth whoosh — luckily mostly relegated to the ending of songs. The material remains interesting, with hairpin turns often connecting song sections in an abrupt way. The material feels like it is on the brink of collapse, but it never gets there. Second Wound as a whole is constructed in a cohesive way. Yet, through the longform songs, a feeling of exhaustion is felt and whenever I finish a spin of the album, I am glad it is over. This is not the feeling I should get from an album that I must admit does interesting things and, on an objective level, very little wrong. Maybe a sound so busy, harsh and ever changing is not suited for an album that is structured in a way that Ploughshare have done here. Despite the aggressive and forward songwriting approach — mirrored in intensity by the Colin Marston master — there is a lack of immediacy. The album manages to pick up the pace regularly by simply including interesting and unique material; particularly through the strangely prog and jazz inspired bass performances and moments of shimmering, bright harmony. But the fact that the album needs to pick up the pace at all, the moment that it has to start and stop, to wind down first before it can regain its momentum seems like a songwriting flaw to me. At least compared to a band that, in the past, knew how to annihilate me sonically in considerably less time.
