The Blacktones - The Longest Year

Italy’s The Blacktones have changed quite a bit over the years since their inception, each album seeming to get clearer and clearer since its start as an instrumental band back in 2011. While the core of this five piece is Sludge Metal, they’ve slowly been leaning towards other more accessible sounds, from Stoner Rock like Green Lung to almost Alternative Metal similar to that of the late American Head Charge, trying to avoid the typical route of sounding like the next Crowbar for its static distortion, droning southern flair or trying to be the harsh noise assault that Eyehategod chooses. The Blacktones of 2024 with their third full length album is moody, but quite enjoyable and clear, which is a bit of an oxymoron for a Sludge Metal album as usually they are grim, harsh, and filthy sounding, but “The Longest Year” showcases the band’s best effort to really draw in more of the Rock crowd without avoiding the pitfalls of whiny ballads or too many riff driven songs that use the same power chords over and over.

Blacktones best feature for this album is of course, vocals. Aaron Tolu comes across clear and sharp but also moody and emotional, when he’s screaming in a Killswitch Engage fashion or crooning his heart out on a track like ‘The Theshhold.’ It is a perfect example of how the beauty of gothic styled Sludge meets the harshness of grim Sludge, but still sounds clear, even when the vocals have the industrial warble to them that American Head Charge had sometimes. The riffs and moody and building from Sergio Boi and Paolo Mulas and while many of them border the Doom genre with how dark they get such as on ‘Older Brother’ they have a lot of rhythm to them and still carry that slicing Sludge element, such as on ‘The Greenhouse’  or ‘The Parade’ which are of the more Alt. Metal driven tracks with its electronic warbles as the band continues to try stick with the limits of the genre- especially on the vocal side which features more screaming- but adding in more tasteful elements to help elevate the guitar solos. Unfortunately on the noisier tracks the bass from Gianni Farci and the drums from Alessandro Castellano are lost in the mix, but they get their time to shine such as on the more moody ‘Take this Time’ or the psychedelic ‘What Year Is It?’ It is the slower, heavier building tracks that really draw in listeners for Blacktones because they show they don’t need a fully abrasive sound like bands such as Warcrab do to suck their listeners in.

While the Sludge genre and their sub genres are known for rather harsh soundscapes, Blacktones mostly try to smooth out the rough parts even on their heavier tracks here and try to be progressive. Listeners will probably compare to the direction that “The Longest Year” goes in with that of Katatonia during their mid era, as it is definitely more Rock than Metal driven, but still has those biting moments such as on ‘Russian Doll’ to draw in the heavier crowd. Will some listeners be a bit disappointed that The Blacktones might have gone for a more ‘sold out’ sound, but one shouldn’t judge them too quickly. Despite a bit of a departure from the stripped down, riff focused fuzziness of their earlier albums, this fresh more modern touch presented by the band makes for a strong, mature album that has a lot of stand out tracks. Be it the moody guitar moments or the strength of the clean vocals or screams, one can definitely say that despite taking a bit more time than usual to make, that “The Longest Year” is definitely a strong listen for anyone who likes Sludge or Alt. Metal in general and should garner lots of new fans with how fresh it sounds, even for its more gothic sounding elements.    

4 / 5 STARS