Out of all of the instrumental sludge/doom/metal bands that have popped up over the past decade, the UK band Capricorns found their way into the upper echelons of the form, their heavy, dramatic math-crush more than just another plodding sludgefeast, incorporating some fantastic math rock maneuvers and sweeping, sometimes almost cinematic atmospheres into their super heavy metallic riffage and delivering an elaborate sound that succeeded at keeping interest without the presence of a singer. Their last album River, Bear Your Bones was really great, a proggy, atmospheric record that balanced epic sky-streaking majesty with violent bursts of angular aggression, and saw the band playing with a wider variety of psychedelic colors than ever before. Unfortunately, their best album was also to be their last, and the band broke up not too long after River came out.

Since then, I hadn't heard anything about what the members were up to until a few months ago, when I found out that the British label Iron Pig had just released the debut from a band called Alabaster Suns that turned out to have three quarters of the Capricorns lineup. This new band has some clear connections to the sound of Capricorns, a sludgy, bottom-end heaviness in particular, some of the same math rock influences, but Alabaster Suns goes in a much less metallic direction, evoking a heavy rocking sound that's closer to early 90's post-hardcore than the doom/sludge that was at the root of their previous outfit. And they've got a singer, too, whose hoarse, emotive bellow appears sporadically throughout the album, punctuating some of the band's more dramatic moments. There's enough here that Capricorns fans will want to get on board, the post-hardcore influences matched with proggy arrangements, chiming melodic guitars scrabbling over crushing riffs, the songs generally pretty rocking and mid-tempo, with lots of complex time signatures and skronky guitar, and even some really cool Voivod-esque riffing mixed in. It reminds me a lot of both Jawbox and Quicksand, a sound that'll be instantly recognizable to any of you guys who were around in the early 90's when this sort of stuff was everywhere, but Alabaster Suns add a drop-tuned metallic crunch and dissonance to it that makes this way heavier than anything from that era. Recommended!