Clearing the Path to Ascend

YOB – Clearing the Path to Ascend Review

YOB – Clearing the Path to Ascend Review

“Eugene, Oregon’s YOB have come a long way since their beginnings way back into the nineties. They started their career on a high note by churning out a pretty unique beast of an album, Elaborations of Carbon, whose mad, gigantic sound would become the band’s trademark. By 2005, albums like The Unreal Never Lived ensured them the status of one of the frontrunners of the sludge/doom scene and following that record, the band went on a two-year hiatus which looked like a permanent disbandment at the time. When they came back from the dead, fuelled by the perseverance of mastermind Mike Scheidt, it was clear that YOB underwent some kind of transformation, which was reflected on the following two albums. Taking that into account, the expectations and fears for their first new material in three years were running high through a mist of uncertainties and worries about the direction the band would take.” YOB is love, but is YOB still YOB? YOB!