siLLy puPPy The year 2008 was a good one for INTRONAUT as they signed onto a worldwide deal with Century Media Records and hit a home run with their amazingly brilliant “Prehistoricisms.” The band followed up with a successful touring schedule with Kylesa and Mastodon as well as the Great Indian Rock Festival in Dehli, India. Two years later INTRONAUT followed up that album in a most unexpected way with their 2010 release VALLEY OF SMOKE. There was a new direction a-brewing and the most noticeable aspect is the toning down the overall harshness and adding heavier doses of post-rock thus creating a thick atmospheric slick of post-metal with healthy portions of sludgery on the side. The band enjoyed the luxury of a stable lineup as well and on this one sees a cameo appearance of Justin Chancellor from Tool adding a second bass on the title track.

The opening track “Elegy” belies the direction of the album as it sounds like the signature progressive post-rock infused sludge metal that the band has been conjuring up from day one, complete with progressively constructed distorted riffs, shouted vocals and jazz-infused song structures. Starting with the second track “Above” Sacha Dunable seems to leave the harsh extreme vocals behind for the most part and focuses more on a clean atmospheric approach reminding me of the clean parts on later Enslaved albums in mood and dynamics. While the shouting pops up intermittently there is much more attention paid to the lighter aspects of the band’s sound. This is an approach they would even further on the following album “Habitual Levitations.”

After a perfect album like “Prehistoricisms” i hardly expected a repeat in its successful formula and i’m glad INTRONAUT didn’t try to simply recreate it. I have to admit that i was initially disappointed by the approach on VALLEY OF SMOKE upon first listen as they seem to be on the same trajectory as The Ocean or even Mastodon where they began their career as uncompromising heavy sludge outfits and have slowly drifted towards the more ethereal and atmospheric pastures of post-rock infused sludge metal but after a few listens this one does sink in and the progressive time signature workouts accompanied by seasoned musicians and the stellar production of Josh Newell only makes this one better after every spin. True that it will never dethrone what came before in my book but VALLEY OF SMOKE is still quite the sophisticated atmospheric sludge metal attack with lots of post-rock meanderings. Unlike “Prehistoricisms” which i can put on any time and fall into the musical ecstasy zone, VALLEY OF SMOKE requires me to be in the right mood to want to hear, but when i am this one does deliver the goods.

topofsm Gaining respect in the past few years, Intronaut stands out as the prime progressive sludge band these days. It's not that Mastodon has gone a more proggy route or that Isis has disbanded, it's that they've emerged from their primordial waves of sound and filled a niche that is entirely their own, and by their progression since this album and the last, it seems that they may be staying here comfortably for a long time.

Valley of Smoke stands out in the sludge genre by being a bit more prog-oriented than, say, the repetitive post-metal roots of Isis or Pelican. Rather, instead of repetition, they relish in lots of atmospheric windy soft sections, and during the heavy sections they are in a state of constant change, shifting time signatures and shouting your standard sludge vocals to give some interesting punctuation to other sections. The time changes are never ostentatious technicality though. They serve to give a very amorphous sound to the entire album, giving another layer to the already noisy genre we call sludge.

While this album is totally about the atmosphere, the rhythm section in the group is probably the highlight. Joe Lester's bass has a really fat, jazzy tone that winds around the guitar melodies and chords really well. Meanwhile, Danny Walker does similar things with his percussion, and while it is quite obvious he is skilled at his craft, he performs very tightly and fits the music so well you may not notice the skill required to play those parts. Together, the two pull together the songs, and are the backbone of everything, giving the two other guitars a great foundation for both their reverbing soft guitars or dissonant noisy riffs.

One of the best examples of this tight rhythm section is in the intro to "Core Relations", which is set behind some soft echoing guitars, while the drums and guitar play off each other in a slow, but syncopated and complex manner. They join together so well that they build the haunting atmosphere simply by repetition, before the guitars start to fade in with the growled vocals and distorted riffs. This is probably the highlight of the album, the peak in terms of emotion and sheer songwriting talent.

Probably the other peak would be "Miasma", which is one of the tracks that gives off the most tension in the album. The verses go back and forth between shouted vocals and an emotional sung line, both in the shouted 'caveman' style so frequent in sludge music. This builds an angry and terse mood, and when the atmosphere drops in, the solemn guitar seems to acknowledge these emotions and release the tension, until it all builds into a heavy explosion of noise towards the end.

Valley of Smoke is definitely one of the stronger albums of 2010, being one where technical musicianship can go hand in hand with creating exactly the kind of atmosphere meant for sludge. It's such a cliche saying a band is really technical but the technicality works for the album, but in this case their musicality and ear for what works in a good atmospheric sludge song makes their level of musicianship shown absolutely perfect for sludge. The band knows exactly what to do to build more tension at the time, whether it's a quick shift in rhythm or an odd note choice or even simply droning on a minor scale riff. This band makes it work, and Valley of Smoke is an excellent example of their talent.