Album Review: Callus – A Breath of Flesh Air (Trepanation Recordings)

Hailing from Preston in the UK, stoner/sludge/thrash band Callus are back with a brand-new album entitled, A Breath of Flesh Air. The band’s second studio album was recorded at Foel Studios, Wales in Feb of this year with producer Chris Fielding at the helm. It releases in full on October 29th via Trepanation Recordings.

Kicking off this banger of an album with a really heavy one, the building intro of Molar Crown is killer but the wild bout of thrashy head-banging that follows is even better. A track that moves at a peppy pace, the meaty instrumentation and scowling vocals hit a chorus that gets down right filthy. Hell, so good is this track, you can almost move to the rhythm such is the groove in the riffs.

Catch your breath, Ka-tet leans a bit more into stoner and sludge metal territory with bouts of clean singing and a dark undercurrent of heaviness. Before the hilariously titled, Cinderstella has Callus coming out having had too many and feeling a tad aggressive. A circle pit track if there ever was one.

This album is a blast but it’s also great to hear Callus’ really progressing as they step into stronger stoner rock regions with Sorrow’s Bane. It’s still heavy, the guitars and, in particular, the drums, make sure we know that, but the clean singing really makes the difference here.

Toadfish than has the band get imaginative and a touch progressive sounding with a heavy and groovy instrumental before Fatberg says to hell with all of that, here’s 10-minutes of brilliant chaos.

I mean what can you possibly say about this track to do it justice? It’s moody, it’s energetic, it’s heavy, it’s mellow, it’s intense, it’s smart, it’s interesting and it’s detailed. If you want one track to show just how good Callus can be, then this is the one for you.

How do you follow that? It’s a tough task but Callus are more than up to it with Sludge Guzzler. A short blast of flesh air to wrap things up satisfyingly.

Brilliant. What a brilliant release this is. It’s the sort of thing you hear and you know big things are in store for this band based off it.

Callus – A Breath of Flesh Air Full Track Listing:

1. Molar Crown
2. Ka-tet
3. Cinderstella
4. Sorrow’s Bane
5. Toadfish
6. Fatberg
7. Sludge Guzzler

Links

Bandcamp | Facebook | YouTube