Diesto: For Water or Blood

It's funny how some bands simply escape my notice. To be fair, most bands escape my notice, but that doesn't mean I won't try and keep up with as many of them as I can. In the case of Diesto, all I can say is that I enjoyed listening to what these veteran doomsters created and I'm very excited to discover their other releases.

For those (like me) who don't know Diesto, the band is made up of Chris Dunn (guitar / vocals), Mark Bassett (guitar), Rusty Powers (bass), and Devon Shirley (drums). As a group, these guys make really heavy music, built around hard-hitting riffs, despairing vocals, and a pounding lower end. But this is no ordinary heavy metal album. Instead of traditional riffs, solos, and beats, the music moves along at a slower-than-usual pace, resulting in a moody and doomy rock sound. Unlike other bands in this style, Diesto plays with quite a bit of discipline, mastering the slowness of the music with amazing precision. It may be difficult to play fast, but it's even harder to play slowly. These guys have it mastered. At times, the music kind of reminded me of what Mastodon would sound like if they played at a much slower pace and performed with much gloomier vocals.

On the whole this is a satisfying release. My only complaint is that the tempo is so consistent that it occasionally drags, especially in the tracks that stretch out to about eight minutes. Nevertheless, tracks like "Trail to the Sun" and "The Road" were pretty great. For fans of slower tempo heavy rock with stoner / doom overtones.

Track Listing:
1. Trail to the Sun
2. Edge of the World
3. The Road
4. Sirens
5. Adrift at Sea
6. Dirty River
7. Arrows

Added: January 30th 2014
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 1632
Language: english

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