Yob ‘Our Raw Heart’ Review [rating=5]: Oregon doom metal trio create a masterpiece born of pain and rebirth.
It’s like when your hard drive crashes—sometimes only parts of it are retrievable. That’s how it was for me. Some things just didn’t come back. Others came back in completely different ways. Others are still there but my perspective is completely different. I live in a different world now, and all of that went into this album—new insight, a new sense of self.
That’s Yob vocalist and guitarist Mike Scheidt reflecting in a recent press release on the health scare that threatened not just his band, and his voice, but his life, when a bout of acute diverticulitis landed him in the hospital in 2017. It required emergency surgery and a lengthy recovery, and much concern among his fan base.
But he successfully recovered, reuniting with his band mates bassist Aaron Rieseberg and drummer Travis Foster. And his haunted vocal style and guitar prowess are both intact and at the peak of their powers on the doom metal trio’s powerful new album Our Raw Heart (out June 8th on Relapse Records), which is a reflection on his close call with death.
It’s clear from the opening chord of Ablaze that the band are preparing us for an emotive and dark sonic journey of the soul, offering dynamic shifts over its 10 minute and 14 second run time, with Scheidt’s granulated howl fusing with oceanic guitar atmospherics to chill inducing effect.
The Screen changes tack with a sustained lurching riff that has a horror score intensity and more aggressive vocals, which are eventually complimented by a melodic chorus and snarling guitar wails.
In Reverie is another bludgeoning track, with Scheidt’s unholy howl recalling the late Chris Cornell over lumbering Sabbath-worth riffage. It’s glorious, bottom-heavy stuff that never sacrifices volume for definition.
But it’s ultimately the more tender and emotional aspect of Your Raw Heart that resonates most, and this is in full display on Beauty In Falling Leaves, a gorgeous song featuring liquid guitar arpeggios and uplifting vocal harmonies that rivals the band’s 2014 gem Marrow for transcendent impact.
When Scheidt sings Darkness comes to the door/Table place set before its honored seat/The chase has come and gone/Yearning to be let go…Been this way throughout my life/Your heart brings me home, its impossible not to make connections to his recent health scare, which makes it all the more powerful and moving.
While Our Raw Heart only features 7 tracks, one can’t accuse Yob of skimping on material. Most songs run over 9 minutes and the group closes out with the title track, which never feels overlong over its 14:24 runtime.
It’s another moving meditation that confronts Scheidt’s struggles, but for a band associated with such a gloomy sub-genre, it’s uplifting and triumphant stuff. Over interweaving guitar textures and cavernous drums Scheidt’s stratospheric vocals pulls no punches on his recent ordeal, recovery and new perspective:
From holes in my gut/To love from miracles…Drawn by a mortal thread/To an ever shifting weave…Shrine to a silent call…Beckoning my restless ghost.
Yob’s mix of bruising riffs and emotionally resonant vocals makes them a true standout in the doom/stoner/sludge arena, and Our Raw Heart is the ultimate testament to their unique musical alchemy.
Scheidt recently stated that We had a joyous time writing this record, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of people all around the world who decided that we mean enough to them that they would take their time and energy and send it in our direction. And now we have this album that’s built on not only what I went through but what everybody gave us…This is album is a gift that was given to us.
Listeners will certainly agree. Our Raw Heart is one of the finest albums of the year, and transcends genre and trends, proving that healing words and sinister riffs need not be mutually exclusive.
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