from http://www.aversionline.com Yeti "Volume Obliteration Transcendence" CD 7/10 - [Life is Abuse] Damn… four tracks, 53 minutes, lots of plodding sludge. Most every track is between 10 and 20 minutes of somewhat repetitive and largely instrumental music that revolves around an at times jazzy, at times spacey/experimental brand of doomy sludgy, likely drawing from at least a few obscure 70's influences. There are definitely a lot of shifts in dynamics from slow and sinister distorted rhythms to sparse clean guitars, with smatterings of whispered vocals and thick little synth textures underneath. There's certainly an improvisational tangent to some of the work, as overall things sort of plod along and feel sort of constantly in change without any real sense of song structure, and a couple of the more chaotic areas are almost certainly improvised. Some distant yelling/growling comes into play about five minutes into "Strangled by Light", nearly 10 minutes into the album, and really add some force to the piece's very slow buildup. The final minutes of the track break up into an excellent passage of droning synth/guitar soundscapes that are both ambient and slightly abrasive… very cool. In some cases the synths actually disrupt things for me, some of the spacier and more 70's sounding uses in some ways, but it's alright. Quirky vocals and time signatures pop up immediately in the "brief" (by comparison - seven minutes) "Blood Lotus" before locking into a repetitive bass/synth groove and letting the guitars get looser. Closer "Black Pills" tops an absolutely massive 19 minutes and takes several minutes to increase from a scantly audible pulse of synths and soft clean guitars/percussion, very carefully getting louder before plowing into one of the loudest and most intense passages of the CD. As with most of the songs its structure breaks down after a bit and gets looser and more towards a gritty/noisy side, which is in some ways unfortunate, but still understandable within this context. The recording is very well executed with a thick, lush set of natural tones and a strong mix that leaves no space unattended. In regards to my earlier comments on the synths I do think I might like to hear them mixed lower in favor of a more dominant bass presence, but I think that's more because the synths are the weak link to me. The musical elements of the electronics aren't as interesting or fitting as the more experimental textures and can deaden the blow of the harder hitting chord progressions. The CD comes in an absolutely excellent digipack where all of the artwork, including every bit of text, is incorporated into the paintings. The contact information, the tracklist, the thanks list, everything. And it looks fucking superb: Great color scheme, a nice artistic style… very visually engaging. I love the packaging. This isn't something I could listen to on a regular basis, and I feel that the band has some kinks that are preventing them from really smashing faces (the most structured portions of "Black Pills" are amazing), but I do respect and enjoy this in large part. Nice work.