Album Details

• Artist: Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire
• EP:
Visceral
• Label: Prosthetic Records
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2012-04-14

Experimentation is the name of the game for Denver's Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire. A musical experiment in emotional turmoil, Visceral is a short, blunt assault to the senses via a barrage of sludge, doom, death and a morbid sense of physical degradation. At just around 16 minutes, and via the transistions between the 6 tracks, Visceral feels very much like one long, continual dose of punishment and atonement.

The chaos of this frentic 3-piece swirls around a multitude of particular genre's staples; the down-tuned crush and dirge-like pacing of doom metal, the meandering stomp of sludge, and the occasional blast of intense modern death. At it's core, Visceral doesn't seem to make claim at being an entity of production; instead it teeters on the fine line of pure emotional expression. How well it does this, in the end, will depend fully on whether or not the blend of extremes appeals to your tastes. Because it is in the sonic dissonance of the band's songwriting that the emotional excercise takes place. One could gleam a host of different emotive impressions from this small slice of extremity, but then again, one might hear nothing but noise. 

As to where I fall, it's somewhere in between. This album has a few moments of absolute epicness that I don't feel the need to pinpoint on such a short length. Suffice to say, Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire have laid down an impressionable dose of sonically disturbing and relentless metal with the apt-titled Visceral. The potential to win your ear ultimately depends on whether or not the somewhat structureless songwriting and menagerie of metal subgenres all appeal to you. Or, maybe you're like me and will find just enough to keep it from being a waste of time. 

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