YOB - Atma (2011) [Profound Lore] // Grade: B

The Oregon doom metal trio YOB have returned after a successful 2009 release The Great Cessation to unleash Atma, their sixth album on their attention-starved fan base. At just over 50 minutes long, the 5-track album could be what we’ve all been waiting for. But don’t hold your breath. YOB’s sound lost the intensity that made The Great Cessation such a successful follow up to their masterpiece Catharsis: Mike Scheidt’s pissed off vocals. Two years later and Atma sounds like Scheidt has once again, lost his intensity.

While “Burning the Altar” off The Great Cessation finally captured YOB’s potential as a powerfully emotive doom band, the opener for Atma, “Prepare the Ground” makes Scheidt sound like a cat in heat. While the earlier sound came across as some Helmet / Deftones supergroup, Atma just kinda goes limp in the hands of a rock goddess and we’re only on the first track. “Atma”, the second delivery on the album gets a little better but that demented tinge to Scheidt’s vocal range is gone.

I know it’s easy to complain about vocals but when YOB came out from their slumber in 2009, we were greeted with a new band with an intensity that was absent from their earlier work and it pains me to say this but Atma is right back where they were in the early 2000′s. Even the instruments are a bit off. Technically, they’re there but there’s little homogeneity to the sound. Something the The Great Cessation prided itself in. In fact, we don’t see it until “Before We Dreamed of Two” and thank God because at 16 minutes in length, we’d have a long, boring road ahead of us. “Before We Dreamed of Two” is the saving grace for Atma. Like early Sleep or Cathedral, it resonates with energy and Mike’s vocals are spot-fucking on. In fact, this is the only track on Atma worth a damn.

Well, that’s not entirely true because “Upon the Sight of the Other Shore” ain’t half bad. Mike’s vocals are back to their dismal state and the riffs collide with the drums perfectly, it just takes a good 5 minutes to finally pick up before it dies at the 7 minute mark. The final track on Atma is “Adrift in the Ocean” and as the name implies, it’s a lofty, spacey track. With an almost middle eastern, or Earthly sounding. The band, not our planet. In fact, “Adrift in the Ocean” really ties the experience of Atma together, embracing the somewhat experimental and jarring sounds to form some weird Ouroboros cycle. It’s much more to the point, like the first few cuts but it’s technically precise like the lumbering and lengthy “Before We Dreamed of Two”.

After listening to the album on repeat a few times, you’ve really got to admire how it plays in a cycle. But still, time after time, the first few tracks are too jarring for me to sing their praises. YOB still has it, they just have to do a better job at refining their presentation a bit and while Atma is still better than many other doom albums of 2011, it’s gotta work a bit harder to compete with The Great Cessation.

- Prolly