It’s hard to know what a band called The Munsens will offer listeners, but I can’t say that sprawling sludge and doom would’ve been my first guess. Formed in New Jersey and now based in Denver, the group’s debut full length Unhanded takes the crunchy grooves and thick tonality of their earlier EP’s and pushes the sound towards a wider range of influences than before. While there’s a consistent dark and heavy tone and lumbering instrumentation driving the record forward, each of the five songs gets there in a slightly different way and makes The Munsens distinguishable from the standard Black Sabbath or Electric Wizard clones that have a tendency to dominate the genre.
That last sentence shouldn’t be taken the wrong way, as there are plenty of groups that channel both of those influences and carve out their own niche in the process. And that’s definitely the case here too, as the majority of “Pitiful” has a powerful, bottom heavy groove that wouldn’t feel out of place on an Electric Wizard or Windhand album. But where a lot of doom bands would simply stop there and prove themselves to be all style without substance behind it, The Munsens branch out in a way that ups their appeal. Opener “Dirge (For Those to Come)”, which is also the longest track on the album, is a perfect example of this, as it starts off with melodic leads that have a much warmer texture and give off a windswept desert vibe before transforming into some blasting sections that throw you a black metal curveball. The songwriting’s great at switching things up in this manner just as you start to settle into a headbanging stupor, often throwing in a faster tempo change that channels a bit of hardcore punk. Admittedly even with the riffs providing plenty of stand out moments, I’m left with the impression that The Munsens are still scratching the surface of this type of genre shifting and have room to grow even further.
The vocal work on Unhanded skews towards the harsher end of the spectrum, with the screams coming off as somewhere between black metal and hardcore. It’s an interesting mix that comes off feeling a bit different than your standard doom or sludge pitch, and there’s an abrasive edge that catches your attention even when the instrumentation has shifted towards the melodic side. The Munsens are particularly good when it comes to giving their vocals the right amount of space, as there are plenty of extended instrumental build-ups and jams that allows the screaming to come in with maximum intensity every time.
With Unhanded The Munsens have branched out further from simple doom or sludge worship, channeling equal amounts of abrasive and bleak riffing with warmer tones that give off a more introspective and almost psychedelic vibe. The band has left themselves with room to grow even further and push completely outside of the established genre boundaries, but there’s no denying that the level they’re already at gives listeners some catchy, dense riffs and a lot of intriguing textures to soak up. Unhanded is out now on Sailor Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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