YOB's music is not unlike the path that's let them to their current place among heavy metal's elite, slowly building from a hushed ethereal vapour into the thunderous and masterful tumult of sound domination. The ethereal mists of Eugene, Oregon no doubt provided the perfect catalyst for founding member and vocalist Mike Scheidt to call up the signature of surging doom that would soon come to garner YOB its current position as one of the most respected and revered bands in all of heavy metal. While giving due sonic credit to the cornerstone influences such as Cathedral, Sleep, Electric Wizard, and Black Sabbath - YOB immediately set out to define a sound wholly singular and utterly devastating in its cathartic enormity.
Those threads of progressive rock and drone that have always underscored the music of YOB are now fully realized with Clearing The Path To Ascend, as each track forges into the next with a ferocity that's as completely unhinged as it is utterly focused. Drummer Travis Foster wields his signature rhythmic furore here with bombastic precision while bassist Aaron Rieseberg, coils around the sonic tide with an unforgiving churn - all the while in a deadly synchronicity with Scheidt's uncanny vocal range and its pendulous movement between the triumphant howls of a medieval madman and the earth splitting growls of a war-battered titan.
With Clearing The Path To Ascend, YOB explores a thunderous dimension that's familiar in its auditory clout but completely new in the execution of its trajectory, taking the band's sound into a remarkable place as ethereally compelling in its aesthetic, as it is merciless in the magnitude of its sound.
Behold the artwork that will adorn this work of art, and check out the track listing below:
In Our Blood
Nothing To Win
Unmask The Spectre
Marrow
Comments founding vocalist/guitarist Mike Scheidt,
"Writing this album felt like being plugged into a main. Emotionally, it's our heaviest.
But it also has some real beauty and light. We dug the deepest we ever have to get to the heart of these tunes."
"Writing this album felt like being plugged into a main. Emotionally, it's our heaviest.
But it also has some real beauty and light. We dug the deepest we ever have to get to the heart of these tunes."
Don't forget you can witness the first sampling of
Clearing The Path To Ascend at: http://youtu.be/vHhrk0w7g3I
Clearing The Path To Ascend at: http://youtu.be/vHhrk0w7g3I
___________________________________________________________
Clearing the Path to Ascend: Coming Sept 2 US / Sept 1 UK & EU / Aug 29 GER
___________________________________________________________
“YOB might be one of the best bands in North America,” — Ben Ratliff; New York Times
“The second track on Clearing The Path To Ascend has some of the most furious drums I’ve ever heard from Travis Foster. We’re talking Through Silver In Blood-level.” – The Obelisk’s Roadburn 2014 Recap