Rating: NNNN
Kylesa have always been more about atmosphere than heaviness, more likely to draw you deep into their thick sludge than to pummel you with volume. That’s especially apparent on their sixth album, Ultraviolet, which peels back the murk to disclose the yearning, melancholic melodies below to such a degree that purists will hesitate to even call it metal.
But the Savannah, Georgia, quintet doesn’t worry about genre membership, instead creating an all-encompassing mood that allows for tuneful, spacey explorations alongside hardcore-influenced catharsis.
In producing the record, guitarist Phillip Cope stepped back on vocals, allowing Laura Pleasants’s plaintive lilt to take the lead more often. That fits shimmering, poppy ballads like Steady Breakdown. And where the band’s double-drum rhythm section was once their most forceful sound, here it’s just another element in an impressively rich palette.
Top track: Quicksand
