Seeker
Unloved
Victory Records
Street: 10.29
Seeker = Blood Has Been Shed + Gojira + The Faceless
If nothing else, Seeker deserve credit for the sheer number of notes and syncopated rhythms they fit into a 28-minute album. Knee-jerk reaction would lump these guys in with the somehow-still-prevalent deathcore genre, but Unloved lacks the breakdowns and the tech-noodling. What they do play is ferocious, syncopated rhythms where guitars serve as another percussive instrument, punctuated by slow interludes of open strumming. Seeker either are your thing or they aren’t, and for some reason, it feels like a record that would have dropped in the early 2000s. Credit goes to these guys for playing some harsh rhythms, but a constant pummeling, even for a brief 28 minutes, is fatiguing and causes the mind to wander—much in the same way a 20-minute doom metal epic can drag. It’s all sprint with Seeker, and it burns bright and fast, but can’t sustain for even its short running time. –Peter Fryer