Along with the limited edition vinyl for Capricorns excellent debut, we also picked up some of the UK instrumentalists self-titled CD from a few years back, now in stock for the first time here at C-Blast. Early on, Capricorns featured members from several well-known British metal bands, including Iron Monkey, Orange Goblin, and Dukes of Nothing, but played a mostly vocal-free, superheavy style of atmospheric sludge; their first album Ruder Forms Survive was where I was introduced to their powerful longform instrumentals, but I never got around to checking out their very first three-song EP that Rise Above put out in 2004 until just now. These songs ("Comrades In Tears", "Queen Of Bruises", and "Transcendental Evisceration") are as complex and heavy as the music on their first album; each song moves between haunting atmospherics and dark moodiness, and massive riffage and pummeling percussive thunder. Drummer Chris Turner brings his distinctive style of rolling, tumbling rhythms that propelled the druggy biker metal of Orange Goblin, and here his drumming creates a seething undertow of rhythmic activity that contrasts with the brooding arpeggios and repetitive heavy riffs. You might draw some comparisons between Capricorns and the epic arrangements of early Pelican, though my ears hear something much darker and proggier - these long, doleful jams move through similiar terrain of peaks and valleys as Pelican, but the riffs are more aggressive, the drumming much more complex and dynamic. The band also makes good use of spacey electronic textures and interesting time signatures, and like with their other releases that I have, there is only one track here that features vocals; when those show up, it's a gruff roar that suits the heaviness just fine. A band to check out if yer into the heavy instrumental style of groups like 5ive, Suzukiton, Zebulon Pike and dark, soundtracky stuff like Zombi and Morkobot.