Hey everyone, Metalthony and Coffeetano here, the internet's busiest metal music nerd. I'm here to review Sumac's fifth studio album called The Healer.

Sumac is a Canadian-American trio of probably the hardest working dudes in metal. The members have been in the scene for an incredibly long time, having been in both post-metal and post-hardcore projects, including Isis, Russian Circles, and Baptists. This positions sumac as a highly influential post-metal band, right alongside Nerosis, Amenra, and Cult of Luna, just to name a few. The band consists of Aaron Turner, Nick Yackershin, and Brian Cooke, three extremely seasoned musicians, all bringing a wealth of experience and skill to the group.

Taking a quick look at Sumac's discography so far, their debut album, The Deal, was the record that mended a lot of broken hearts caused by Isis suddenly breaking up in 2010. That colossal post-apocalyptic and experimental sound that we were missing, pretty much got it back with that debut. And then with their second record, What One Becomes, it just delivered more of that, but with a bit more control and precise technicality.

Their third and fourth album, Love and Shadow and May You Be Held, is where that very tangible shift into improvisational and borderless metal began. And across all their records, the lyrics tend to read as poetry, thus being quite open to interpretation, but with obvious themes of self-reflection and deep thinking. So with each record came longer and more abstract compositions, highly influenced by Kenji Hina, I'm sure. And now with this new one, The Healer, they are pretty much continuing to go in the direction of no direction.

There's a total of four tracks with a run time of an hour and 15 minutes. It can be easy to get lost, but that's kind of the point. Aaron Turner states, "Our intention is to immerse and overwhelm the listener rather than entertain, to provoke reflection and curiosity rather than placate." The first track, "World of Light," is 25 minutes long, and it instantly throws you into the deep end of free-form metal. Sometimes it's just a mix of puzzling noise, other times a lonely ringing out guitar kicks in, creating a kind of trance.

The vocals are very muddy and gravely, just what you'd expect from Aaron Turner. However, there's one moment where he does a high screech, which is far too jarring for my taste. Even after multiple listens, my brain still couldn't register that was part of the song. I also would have liked some structure to kick in a little sooner since we don't get to that until about halfway through the track. But once we get there, things come together and that post-metal sludge vibe comes through. It's a very heavy and emotional journey. Lyrically, it seems to home in on the idea of raking free from darkness as a collective and pursuing enlightenment.

The next track, "Yellow Dawn," is the single they released, and it's easy to see why. It's the heaviest and most structured track, making it the most familiar to Sumac fans. And the intro is one of the most stunning I've ever heard from this band. It's psychedelic, stoner infused, and incredibly delicate with the use of organs. It's just a really great calm-before-the-storm moment. And once that storm hits, you get this thick and intense rhythm where all the musicians are just so in sync, producing a very calculated assault of sound.

Their knack for creating mechanical and post-apocalyptic vibes is really emphasized here. There's also a section where the intensity reaches its peak. The complexity in the drum work provides such a compelling backdrop to the seemingly improvised guitars and distortion. This is definitely the highlight of the 12-minute track, this track is probably my favorite as well because it's Sumac at its best.

The next track, "New Rights," starts off awkward yet boisterish with a stop and start pace. That awkwardness, though, it works because it creates an intrigue where the track could possibly be going. But we aren't left in the dark too long because the song quickly shifts to a steady climb. There are moments that can come off as very mathy due to how unpredictable everything sounds. In the second half of the track, the vocals temporarily transform it into this growly spoken word over a backdrop of chaotic musicality, where everyone is just racing to release as much disorienting sound as possible. It's just a very cool part.

There's also this abrupt and seemingly positive change in atmosphere near the end that ties the track together quite nicely. My only complaint, though, are the points where the vocals break into a slightly higher pitch. It doesn't happen often, and it's not as jarring as the one in "World of Light," but it still feels displaced. Regardless, this is definitely my second favorite track on the record.

The final track, "The Stone's Turn," is another 25-minute composition, and it's where most of the band's noise center improv lies. The start can feel quite empty, which may turn some listeners off, but it goes from zero to 100 fairly quickly. Once again, we have this stop-start pace, though I find it most interesting in this track. The focus shifts between spoken word growls, and just loud sessions of everyone whaling on their instruments, which is actually a really cool dynamic. Eventually, we reach a really calm section in the song, which is welcome after all that intense density, but I do wish it lasted a little longer.

I often find myself just starting to vibe with the track before it got abrupt snatched away, which made me sad. With this happening fairly often, it can be easy to get lost and forget where you are in the song. Lyrically, I was able to connect to this track the most because it seems to center around this tumultuous ritual where two people are coming together to be broken down and remade into one. Definitely not something you would expect, but it brought the track to life a little bit more for me.

Overall, this album was really well done, and it just shows Sumac continuing to go on this path of free-form metal, which is something you don't really see in the metal scene. This isn't exactly background music, and it's not for everyone. It can be a very meditative and healing experience, hence the album title, especially with lyrical themes of self-love, growth, and empowerment. As someone who doesn't really listen to free-form music often, it definitely tested my boundaries, and I have more appreciation for this art form. Like I mentioned before, there were moments around the vocals that just really wasn't my vibe, and some of the improv and experimental sections just lasted a little bit too long for me, enough to take me out of the experience.

With that said, I'm feeling a strong 7.

I'm Metal & Coffee, thanks so much to Fantano for having me.

See you later, metalheads.