Trenches is a band formed by Jimmy Ryan, former vocalist of Christian metalcore heavyweights Haste the Day. Releasing one album through Solid State Records, Jesus’ vacation home of all things -core, 2008 debut The Tide Will Swallow Us Whole instead opted for a Neurosis’ Given to the Rising-esque sludgy ‘n slow take rather than the second coming of When Everything Falls. Standing alongside Isis’ swansong Wavering Radiant, it bridged the gap between Hot Topic mallcore and more post-metal hugeness, so after shelling out ten bucks for a CD on IndieGoGo, I was stoked for this beast.
Released alongside bands like Devil Sold His Soul, Rinoa, and Hands, likewise fusing the two wayward styles, Trenches made a strong name for itself, giving further scrutiny to Reckoner. Following a whopping ten years after its initial announcement and a string of teasing singles, it hit 2022 like a ton of bricks. While undeniably hearkening to their debut with mammoth post-metal riffs and Jimmy Ryan’s unmistakable rasp, Reckoner sees an expansion, following Amia Venera Landscape’s The Long Procession, amping up hardcore and sludge for an album that feels like the bastard child of Devil Sold His Soul’s A Fragile Hope, Oathbreaker’s Eros | Anteros, and Haste the Day’s Coward. Featuring this newfound energy with cutthroat viciousness bolstered by concrete heaviness, Reckoner is ten years in the making and worth every second.
While indisputably post-, Trenches does not sprawl in the ways Isis or Cult of Luna do. Instead, their breed of lumbering post-metal most closely recalls the chunky riffing of Dirge’s Lost Empyrean. While thick sludge and hardcore energy spike the relatively standard post-metal templates of “The Death of All Mammoths” and “Eclipse,” tracks like “Horizons,” “Lenticular Clouds,” and “Stillness” are expertly balanced affairs, balancing colossal atmosphere with climactic off-kilter metalcore breakdowns and unique vocal attacks. Reckoner refuses the current twinkly post-rock tendencies of acts like Devil Sold His Soul or A Hope for Home in favor of bone-crushing heaviness. It would have been tempting for Trenches to compensate for lost time with a bloated length, but no track overstays its welcome. Furthermore, written alongside Jimmy Ryan’s vitriolic and multifaceted vocal attack of shrieks, shouts, and gruff singing, and guided by the steady hand of sticksman Dyllen Jerome Nance who plods, pummels, and blasts his way through track after track, movements and influences move steadily and fluidly.
Not to be outdone, guitarists Joel David Lauver, Ross Montgomery, and Carey Stilts, and bassist Bill Scott inject a palpable energy and breakneck tempo that shine best in the briefer tracks – concentrated moments of fury and devastation. Making fantastic use of its three-guitar attack with precision and restraint, layers of rhythms and melodies grace aforementioned tracks, such as the shifting chords alongside vocal interplay of “Lenticular Clouds” or the dueling harmonies of the title track. However, they truly shine in the briefer tracks. “The Wrecking Age,” “The Ties That Bind,” “The Raging Sea,” and “Remnants” can be brushed aside as interludes due to their brevity, but are furious highlights in the same vein as Oathbreaker’s pummeling hardcore tracks. They hit hard and fast, rife with memorable riffs and Ryan’s most manic vocal performances. Frankly, while it’s easy to make a case for any of Trenches’ many faces to steal to spotlight or outdo the other, the songwriting and individual elements are so solid that they comprise the many dimensions of the whole.
Reckoner is an album well worth its ten-year wait, which is something that not many hiatuses can claim. It displays the maturity and progression of Trenches’ sound in spite of a decade of virtual radio silence. While the melodic reach of “Empires” exceeds its grasp and tumbles into awkward territory, the production feels a tad too dense and claustrophobic, and “sludgy hardcore-tinged post-metal/metalcore” is as divisive of a stylistic choice as they come, it’s all small potatoes when it’s done this well. Plainly post-metal, its stylistic choices paired with Jimmy Ryan’s unique vocal attack makes this six-piece bigger than its debut and its parent act could have ever imagined. 2022 is already slated to be a big year, but Trenches has come out swinging.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self-Released
Websites: digtrenches.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/trenches
Releases Worldwide: January 1st, 2022
