PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Steak Number Eight was formed back in 2007 and won the local rock contest Westtalent. Only a few months later they became the youngest winners ever of the biggest Belgian rock contest, Humo’s Rock Rally.
After that they released their first demo album entitled “When The Candle Dies Out” , this was followed up by playing at the biggest Belgian festival “Graspop”.
The band consists of Brent Vanneste – vocals and guitar, Joris Casier – drums, Jesse Surmont – bass, and Cis Deman – guitar and claim their roots in the sound of bands such Neurosis, Tool, Deftones, Pelican and Isis, They have managed to blend the dark and gloomy post-rock/noise elements quite smoothly, though mostly very heavy and slow, but with a few nice harmonies and calm/quiet moments. This will come as no surprise to metalheads who like sludge metal and post-rock.
From the opening track “Dickhead”, through to the superb “Stargazing”, the best song on this cd I feel, this band never lets up, dark moody movements, interlaced with ambient passages, which slowly rack up the tension.
‘Track into the Sky’ is a gigantic 9 minute’s long, it builds slowly, and with the addition of a choir only strengthening the song, adding to it, it builds to an incredible climax.
The longest song on the album is ‘Drowning in Your Blood’, coming in at just under 10 minutes, blends ambient and sludge metal to beautiful effect, this is really the killer track to show of the bands songwriting skills, as less is sometimes more with a clever use of a silent passage, that fill the listener with anticipation.
The entire album is built on distorted guitars, which I feel leads the album more into stoner type territory, than sludge metal.
But no matter which pigeon hole you try and squeeze this band into, they mix and blend stoner, post rock, punk to great effect, the vocals from Brent Vanneste are aggressive and passionate, while the doom laden tracks bring a striking visualization to the lyrics.
Line-up
Brent Vanneste / vocals,guitar.
Louis Provost / guitar
Jesse Surmont / bass
Joris Casier / drums
1. Dickhead (5:58)
2. Pyromaniac (6:32)
3. The Calling (3:40)
4. Black Fall (7:57)
5. Stargazing (6:01)
6. Track into the Sky (9:02)
7. Trapped (4:11)
8. Man Vs Man (4:42)
9. Drowning in Your Blood (9:54)
10. The Perpetual (8:17)
A doom laden 7/10, the album is out now.
Steak number eight website is HERE.
