The Ditch and The Delta’s sound is a killer blend of fret-mangling math rock and stoner doom aggression. They strike a perfect balance between complexity, melody and no-nonsense gnarly heaviness.
“Hives In Decline” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1). Hives In Mind
2). Fuck On Asphalt
3). Sleeping Dogs
4). Dry Land
5). Till Body Quits
6). Mud
7). Dread Spectacle
The Review:
Salt Lake City Trio The Ditch And The Delta are set to make a lot of people sit up and take notice with new LP “Hives In Decline”.
The first riff of the title track rips through the calm introductory drone like Keelhaulblazing through High On Fire’sbackline. This sets the tone for the rest of this exhilarating album. The Ditch and The Delta’s sound is a killer blend of fret-mangling math rock and stoner doom aggression. They strike a perfect balance between complexity, melody and no-nonsense gnarly heaviness.
“Fuck On Asphalt” channels the epic sludge of early Baronessand Kylesato fine effect. The mid-section where the band provide slow motion backing to twin searing guitar solos particularly highlights the genius at work here. It should sound like an overcrowded mess but somehow all these disparate elements are brought together in seamless fashion.
“Dry Land” provides some mid-album riff respite with a short, quiet instrumental complete with slide guitar flourishes that add a weird but cool country edge. The second half of the album then roars into life with “Till Body Quits” and “Mud”. Both tracks see the band widen their sonic spectrum to include more spidery guitar lines, melodic tapping and hints of the HydraheadSchool of metallic hardcore.
The record closes with “Dread Spectacle” where The Ditch and The Delta add a healthy dose of Neurosisstyle cathartic doom into the mix. When the track breaks down to sparse guitar and Kory Quist’s weary vocals it recalls Scott Kelly at his ragged best.
“Hives In Decline” sees The Ditch and The Delta takes a number of well-worn influences and breathe new life into them to create an addictive blast of intelligent sludge. An essential purchase for all riff aficionados.
Often trying to find the right words to describe something in the most appropriate way, can often be the most difficult thing, particularly when those things make you feel happy or excited, indeed the same could be said for things that make you feel like crap, sometimes the words “that was awesome” or “I feel like crap” just doesn’t quite cut it, because it doesn’t explain the true meaning of the experience. Our views about things are subjective of course, personal to that individual, but when it comes to music, particularly hearing a killer band destroy your senses with a powerful riff, the same problems apply, words sometime just don’t cut and for Salt Lake City’s The Ditch and The Delta,my words just won’t do this band justice, save to say that the first thing that comes to mind is that they are perhaps my greatest new discovery of the year so far and their mixture of mathematically progressive Neurosis infused sludge, is a breathtakingly fresh heavy infusion of all the best elements of many of your favourite bands, moulded into something genuinely exceptional and unique. Hope that did you justice guys!!
The Ditch and The Deltawill undoubtedly be a new name on the lips of many, but with the imminent release of debut album “Hives In Decline” that is set to change. Armed with their own unique brand of sludgy/noise/doom and love of the “Big Riff”, The Ditch And The Delta implement different tunings, and modal centres, which in turn has enabled them to avoid many of the usual doom trappings of excessive feedback, static harmony, and pentatonic riffs and in doing so they have created one of the finest debuts I have heard for many years.
Set for release via Battleground Recordson May 12th“Hives In Decline” was engineered by Andy Patterson of Subrosa and is certain to propel this band to the next level, alongside fellow Utahan’s such Cult Leader and the aforementioned Subrosa. So with the release date but a few weeks away, we’re stoked to be able to debut the second track from the album entitled “Fuck on Asphalt” below which which features several guitar solos by Gentry Densley from Eagle Twin and Iceburn. You can pre-order/buy the album here
In addition to the stream, we have a double helping of The Ditch And The Detla, as we welcome guitarist/vocalist Elliot Secrist to take us through their top 5 influences. It’s time to turn the volume all the way up to 11, because “It’s one louder, isn’t it?” So ill hand over to Elliot to talk you through his picks
Elliot: Rather than list some obvious influences, we decided to list stuff that we listen to that is not metal. Every review we have received, lists a bunch of bands that we do listen to, and there are way too many, over a lifetime of listening to hardcore and metal, to list. Many of the influences are obvious, so here are some not so obvious ones. My (Elliot) bands that sparked tectonic shifts in my musical thinking are not going to be the same ones for Kory, and Charles.
1.The one band that Charles (Drums) did say he wanted listed is the anarcho hardcore band Catharsis. Their drummer is Alexei Rodriguez. He has been in so many bands but most notable Prong, 3 inches of Blood, Trial, Walls of Jericho. Musically they are thrashy, and have a healthy dose of dbeat. Their themes are all about living authentically at any cost, the passion for life, and resistance to ways of life that are only to serve masters.
Here are two of their best “Obsession”
And their swan song “Arsonist’s Prayer”
The others are staples that we have either listened to forever and continue to inspire, or are stuff we listen to on tour. When playing metal every night with a bunch of metal bands, we tend to avoid listening to metal in the van.
2.One of our first tour listens that we put on every time we go out is Townes Van Zandt. He is the songwriter’s songwriter. In our opinion the best of sad bastard country. Its hard to pick any one album. On the top would probably be his album “Our Mother the Mountain”. He has happy and uplifting songs but he also captures misery and hopelessness unlike any metal band trying to be dark.
“Nothin”
3.Kory’s definite non metal/tour pick is Gucci Mane. Sometimes you just need some shitty trap rap.
“Trap House 3”
4. Is the Utah band Iceburn. Their whole discography is awesome. Starts out super heavy and then gets progressively more exploratory to free jazz orchestra’s to just noise. It is Southern Lord Recording artist Eagle Twin’s Gentry Densley’s brain child. Iceburn has a new extremely heavy album much like their early work coming out sometime in the near future, on Southern Lord. I’ve probably listened to this band 1000’s of times.
1992 “Fall”
1996 “Sphinx (Part II)”This one is a long one and you need to listen to the whole album to get it all. Start at minute 15:00 to get to the coolest ending and riffs ever.
5.Silo (Denmark) is one of the most unique mysterious bands I have ever heard. There really is not a lot of info out there on them. From the first minute heard I knew this was going to be something I listen to on repeat. Mindblowing but minimal at the same time. Their sound has some stuff in common to Portisheadand Massive Attackin its mood, but that is where similarities end. The first album I heard of them is called “Alloy”. Its electronic music but done with real sampled instruments. So soothing that once they finally change the pattern you forget where it even happened. Poly rhythm masters. Ten years after “Alloy” they released one of the heaviest non metal records I have heard. If you want ideas for poly rhythms/beat chopping or new ways to sound heavy without traditional guitar tones listen to “Work”. This band is simply on their own playing field.
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