Zozobra is just one of the multitude of projects that sprung from Cave In's 3 year hiatus. The band is the brainchild of Caleb Scofield, Cave In and Old Man Gloom bassist and background vocalist, and since its inception in 2006 it has provided Scofield with the opportunity to be in complete creative control. The end result is sludge that is by turns hypnotic and visceral. In 2009 Cave In reconvened and it seemed as though Zozobra and the other solo projects the band members started in their break would possibly end up falling by the wayside. This fear became even more close to becoming a reality when Old Man Gloom returned from their 8 year hiatus last year to release 2012's album "NO". However 5 years on from their stellar sophomore album "Bird Of Prey" Zozobra have decided to return at last with a new LP aptly titled "Savage Masters".
Unlike previous efforts the music on "Savage Masters" is more hectic and raw than ever, the walls of pummeling sludgey distorted riffs matched with frantic drumming and Scofields trademark hoarse roar makes for uneasy listening. Yet the straight forward approach makes this oddly one of the bands most accessible releases to date. Whilst "Bird Of Prey" and "Harmonic Tremors" seemed to have more of a focus on atmosphere "Savage Masters" really strips back on subtlety in favour of fierce grinding hardcore. Some trademarks remain firmly in place like the bands bass heavy sound, but the spacey atmospheric builds and clean vocals have all ended up on the cutting room floor this time around. This makes "Savage Masters" a completely different ballgame to the band's previous works and easily their heaviest to date. The non stop barrage of fuzzy riffs and drum rolls makes for a refreshing change but also unfortunately drains some of the more characterful aspects of Zozobra's work that saw the band experiment with more grandiose and epic slowburners. The only other criticism is that after 5 years "Savage Masters" feels somewhat too short with only six tracks some of which scrape in under the 3 minute mark. Other than that though "Savage Masters" doesn't disappoint, delivering punishing sludge dirge after dirge.
The album is available on vinyl through Brutal Panda records or as a download for digital junkies at the following links. I would highly recommend it.
Stream/Download: http://zozobraofficial.bandcamp.com/
Buy On Vinyl: http://brutalpandarecords.com/shop/zozobra-savage-masters-12-vinyl/
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