Band:	Spaceslug
Album:	Eye The Tide
Style:	Doom metal, Sludge metal, Stoner metal
Release date:	July 2018

01. Obsolith
02. Spaced By One
03. Eternal Monuments
04. Words Like Stones
05. Vialys Part I & II
06. I, The Tide

A great disturbance in the cosmic dimensions as molluscan beings of great power have been invading earth-realm. First came Slugdge, born of slime, but not so late after that came another, its arch-nemesis. The being is, of course, Spaceslug.

Other than some sludgish flavors and having "slug" in their name, Slugdge and Spaceslug don't actually have that much in common. The former leans musically more towards tech death and is more self-aware due to most of their song titles being tongue-in-cheek slugisations, while the latter is joining Sunnata and Weedpecker in spearheading this new wave of Polish stoner. And they've been clearly working these past 4 years since their inception, already on their fourth release overall. Yes, I'm counting their EP, too, since it's almost 30 minutes long.

The one thing Spaceslug have working for them best is that all of the three members contribute to the vocals of the album. While at this point I still don't know who sings which part, this does bring plenty of variance in the sound and all three of them have voices that fit in some way or another, one of them sounding somewhat drowned-out, like it was taken from a shoegaze/slowcore/indie album, and another taken from an extreme metal album. Yep, this album does turn more aggressive; we'll get to that in a minute. While not every vocal line is what you'd expect from a laid-back stoner jam album, this slight uncanniness is what should be exploited much more.

Like I said, the album is much more aggressive than their previous ones, but you'd have to wait until the fourth track in to notice that, as it is during "Words Like Stones" that the blast beats and the extreme vocals kick in. By that time, the listener will already have became immersed in the fuzzy and psychedelic jams, and although there may have been a few hints along the way, when it happens it's very surprising (but not unnatural). Sadly, up until the last track, the album kicks back into its usual somewhat progressive, somewhat post-ish jam approach. The production works out quite well in their favour to give the music both the impact and the mood it strives for, but often the flow of the songs is not in the best shape.

Now that Spaceslug have proven themselves, I wish they would put more time into their records instead of chugging out so many records in such a short time. Eye The Tide feels slightly strained and rushed, and while there have been improvements here, Spaceslug really seem like they could pull out a masterpiece if they challenged themselves more. Meanwhile.