Progressive sludge/stoner metal and I are not the best of friends. “But Cherd,” you say, “aren’t you the resident sludge guy?” That’s true. I’m not the only writer here who enjoys the most viscous of metals, but I’m probably the most vocal about it. Enough so that I’ve drawn the unwanted attention of The Eye of Sauron AMG himself, who when he passes me in the hallway yells “SLUDGE LOVER!” and knocks my books out of my hands. Then he kicks me in the butt when I bend over to pick them up, so I fall headlong toward an open locker that he and Steel Druhm try to stuff me into, giggling gleefully. One time Kronos saw this and said, “Leave him alone you guys,” and the next day his office was empty. I haven’t seen him since. Anyway, bands like Dvne tend to bounce right off of me. Elder too. Mastodon did it right for four albums, but I’ve never been overly fond of Baroness, not even Red or Blue. Something about NYC band Somnuri hits different. I enjoyed their self-titled debut, and 2021’s Nefarious Wave made my year-end list. How does third full-length Desiderium compare?
Those familiar with Somnuri’s previous work can expect a similar Cobb salad of influences from early Mastodon to Helmet to savage NYHC. Somnuri and Nefarious Wave occasionally added passages of straight sludge doom in the vein of YOB, and the removal of these marks the largest shift in sound evident in Desiderium. In the place of doom, the band leans hard into 90s grunge, which was present before, but not nearly so prominent. This hardly comes as a surprise given the band’s contributions to Magnetic Eye Records’ covers compilations of classic grunge albums like 2020’s Dirt (Redux) and this year’s Superunknown (Redux). Soundgarden is exactly what I hear in a song like “Remnants,” especially in Justin Sherrell’s clean vocals. Elsewhere, like in “Pale Eyes,” Sherrell sounds more like Dave Grohl, or any number of grunge belters. I can sense a subset of you getting nervous that Desiderium is some kind of alt-rock album. Don’t be. This is Somnuri’s heaviest album to date, with sludge riffs that go off like a bomb blast and fiery hardcore sprints.
The strengths that made Nefarious Wave a lister for me, the smooth integration of multiple genres along with the nasty attitude of New York hardcore, are still present. Those who know my taste may think the downplaying of doom would be a personal disappointment, but the grunge influence that replaced it actually makes Desiderium the better album of the two. Suddenly, the mercurial compositions and vicious outbursts are bolstered by melodic earworm choruses that grow in stature with each listen. The two lead singles are perfect encapsulations. “Death Is the Beginning” shows off the band’s progressive sludge chops and confident harmonized clean vocals. “What A Way to Go” boasts maybe the most repeatable chorus on the album, but it’s embedded in a payload of napalm that punches in and out in under three minutes. Sherrell is an ideal vocalist for the stylistic twists and turns, pivoting from throat-shredding blackened hardcore shrieks to honey-tinged cleans and something in between. He saves his most emotive delivery for closer “The Way Out,” an aching ballad and fitting punctuation mark that still manages to groove hard at times.
On early listens I had quibbles with Desiderium once I hit “Hollow Visions,” but the hang-ups have mostly faded. It’s the track at dead center of the album and follows a particularly thrilling run of three short, punchy songs from the warped sludge stomp of “Paramnesia” through song-of-the-year contender “What A Way to Go.” Compared to these, “Hollow Visions” can feel flat, but this is deceptive. What the track does structurally, with its subdued atmospheric down-shift, is pave the way for a more patient side B that includes the previously mentioned “The Way Out” and equally thoughtful “Desiderium.” The grooves here are slower and more pensive, but no less potent. By the time the powerful one-two punch of “Remnants” and “The Way Out” drops the curtain, it’s hard to pick which half of the record has the bigger impact.
Somnuri has done exactly what you want to see a promising band do with their third record. Namely, take anything that worked with the first two, amp that up a bit, and commit fully to a new wrinkle to elevate the material. The addition of throwback radio alt-rock into their roiling pot of hardcore and progressive sludge makes Desiderium these Brooklynites’ strongest outing to date. It’s rare that an album this aggressive and energetic goes down this smooth.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: MNRK Heavy
Websites: somnuri.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Somnuri
Releases Worldwide: July 21st, 2023
