Sable Hills
Odyssey – Arising Empire
There’s something about the Japanese psyche that continually thinks outside the box and puts a fresh slant on familiar themes, and no more so than in the realm of music. It’s a mindset that’s constantly refining and improving, and that’s precisely what Sable Hills have done over a nine year career. Subsequently, their third album Odyssey is the ultimate distillation of their sound and concentrates their energies into a red hot laser beam. There’s not one second wasted here, even the introduction is tight and compact, and the result is a record that hits harder than anything they’ve done before. With a strong emphasis on groove, the title-track kicks the album off in earnest and it wheels out the heavy artillery to deliver a truly crushing affair. Unlike many of their peers who seem content to exist within well defined boundaries, this Tokyo crew aren’t afraid to throw something new into the mix and the classical structures that permeate their songs are the foundations from which all sorts of magic grows. Old fans needn’t worry because there’s still plenty of breakdowns and mosh parts, yet there’s a freshness that’ll attract new admires on their quest for world domination and with Odyssey in their arsenal, that dominion seems a formality.
Review by Peter Dennis