UNDER - Training Resource #5 (Review)

Written by: Brooklyn Artemis

British summertime is the perfect time for sludge metal. The air is breezeless and humid, pressing downwards, cooking us in our homes and office cubicles. Flying ants mass at our windows, horde-like, a many-legged Great Heathen Army swarming over dying grass and melting bitumen. Government officials at every level are acting like proper bastards, though this is a less seasonal thing than one would hope for. It is in these oppressive climes that I revisited a growing back catalogue of modern UK sludge. The likes of Mastiff (a contributor to the Cyberpunk OST) and Swamp Coffin, both with excellent full length releases last year, have been fixtures of my listening recently. But another band I saw live a few years ago above a record shop in Sheffield also caught my attention during my heat-addled odyssey--Stockport’s Under.

Appropriately for a band whose own Instagram describes them as a ‘tentacle K-hole nightmare’, there’s some interesting stuff going on in Under’s discography. The trio, formed in 2015, have released a series of EPs, splits, and full lengths that have honed a unique brand of progressive and at times psychedelic sludge. Musically, Under often swing between extremes, switching from slower and heavier riffs to quicker sections that display sludge’s hardcore influence, while incorporating a mix of almost soft cleans, high screams, and shouted vocals. Training Resource #5 (the band’s fifth release) was released in November 2020, just before the beginning of the second COVID lockdown in the UK, and I can remember that you could almost taste the resignation to what was to come on the air. The art of the EP, which is up there with the most unique metal album covers around, actually reminds me of that time, of that bizarre online academic and corporate culture that emerged during the pandemic, and never really went away.

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The first track, "Introductions and Apologies," feels almost frantic. The guitars and drums appear to scramble to keep rhythm with each other, and this with the mixed vocal styles lead to the song feeling quick and even spiraling without keeping a high tempo. The odd counts made by every member are a quiet showcase of Under’s technical chops. This short adventure flows straight into my personal favourite song on the release, "Dope Loop." This track is a slower, doomier affair, switching from the crazed composition of the first track to riffs and vocals that feel almost Crowbar-esque. The drumming in these slow sections is still excellent, while the guitars experiment with rests, before increasing the tempo to a point you almost believe you’re about to see more hardcore influence, or be returned to the pace of the first track. Only to rest again. This keeps the track from getting stale, despite being based around a relatively simple repeating motif.
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Again, Training Resource #5 leaves no time for the listener to catch their breath as they are flung straight into "Dividers in Hell." This track switches tempo again, moving more quickly, and though a fairly constant drumbeat is maintained, the song oscillates between pretty groovy guitar work and being borderline discordant. These sections are linked together by short bridges that see fingers racing down the neck of the guitar, while both aspects of the track come together at the end, leading into a sudden deepening in the pitch of the guitars and one of the quickest sections on the EP to finish. The range on display here is a testament to everyone involved, from the songwriting through the instrumentation to the mixing. I think it all comes together far better than it sounds from just a description. The closer, "My War," starts off with a driving, hardcore-like riff after a short intro. This is interrupted twice by rests similar to those in "Dope Loop," followed by a bridge musically similar to the intro only for that driving riff and another series of rests. But this series of rests draws out. The pitch changes. So does the motif. The guitars quieten, yet squeal. And Training Resource #5 finishes, after that last burst of energy, to the quiet sounds of whooping and another guitar fighting to be heard as the release gradually fades to quiet.

This EP is a small glimpse at the larger picture that is Under, constantly changing and blurring together contrasting sounds. It’s incredibly impressive that they manage to give the listener a taste of a good deal of what sludge has to offer--from progressive, spiraling riffs, to doom-adjacent sections, to riffs almost worthy of a two-step--all in an EP that clocks in at just under 14 minutes. I highly recommend this short journey through progressive sludge, and would also keep an eye on Under as they tease a new album. Training Resource #5 is perfect for dying of heatstroke in your own living room or getting a rail replacement bus from Stockport to Sheffield on a miserable Sunday afternoon while experiencing the worst hangover of your life.

Under - Training Resource #5 was released November 13th, 2020 via APF Records. Find it here!

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Under can be found on Bandcamp, Facebook, and Instagram
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