Levitator – The Abuse of Amplification (2013)

Staying very true to their debut EP title: “The Abuse of Amplification”, today we have Levitator and their very crunchy and totally Sludgy music arriving all the way from Australia. In this four song EP, the band delivers 40 minutes of pounding guitars and catchy melodies. Take a page from bands like Black Cobra, Icabod, etc., this band pummels through this release with ease and elegance.

Opening with the 10-minute behemoth “The Ballad of the Long Distance Drug Mule”, we immediately feel the power of the band’s commanding distortion. The riffing is quite engaging and hooks you from the first few minutes we get to hear it. The vocals are a mixed a bit low, but you can hear your typical hardcore-esque screams. “Haystacker (16 Tons)” opens with some potent feedback and a very cool bass-guitar line courtesy of their female bass player Jess. This song got a bit on our nerves since the riffs are quite basic and very repetitive, however, any huge fan of Sludge Metal will found value in this catchy little song (only 6 minutes long).

Things get back on track with “Welcome To Sludge City”, a very cool piece that opens with a Jazzy-esque vibe and slowly develops into a powerful Sludge fest. The band has a few Southern influences on this track, similar to what Down does in their music, but they never sound like a copycat. Featuring some interesting tempo changes and cool interludes, this track is our favorite one in this release. There are even at some point some weird (but good) punk-esque drums.

Closing with “Combustion”, the band delivers their most ambitious track of this release. The drums are pretty decent, but feel like they are just there. However, the guitar duel between Ben and Sam reaches excellent levels of catchiness and make this track quite a good headbanging piece. The stop-and-go sections in this track are quite entertaining and nicely break the monotony by introducing some uncertainty into the music.

Overall, Levitator is a very skilled three-piece from Australia that has the right amount of volume and guitar wizardry (in terms of Sludge) to make an impact on the scene. Once they drop their pretty misleading logo, we thought they played 80’s Thrash when we got the CD, they can start getting noticed by followers of the genre. If you like your music to be heavy and crunchy, you should definitely check this band out.

Label: Self-released

Release: March 23rd, 2013

Genre: Sludge Metal

Country: Australia