Shawn Loeffler by   on @YellMagazine

Bowl Ethereal’s self-titled 7” is the successor to last year’s Five Minutes, which was given away as a free download. Literally, it was five minutes long, and the new 7” being six songs deep, is appropriately six minutes long. The sixth song, “The Sixth Sickener,” was added to the five tracks offered on Five Minutes, so there’s not much new here.

Coming via Southern Lord on July 22nd, Bowl Ethereal is comprised of two members from Virginia: Brian Metz (Amish Control Tower) on guitar, bass and production, and influential math metal luminary Pen Rollings (Honor Role, Breadwinner, Loincloth) on drums and arrangement/deconstruction duties.

The 7”, while very brief, offers up some excellent jazz-inspired melodies and some awesome heavy metal/hardcore riffing, some pounding drum, and some truly sick bass lines.

There will only be 600 pressings, so if you’re interested, you better hurry. U.S. pre-orders can be made at www.southernlord.com and in the UK at southernlordeurope.com

The Verdict:
overall
Shawn Loeffler Bowl Ethereal – Bowl Ethereal (2014) 7” Review 06/13/2014

Bowl Ethereal is truly something for the ADD generation. It’s just way too brief, as interesting as it is. It’s like “Tora! Tora!” from Van Halen or “Tornado” from Skid Row -- awesome and catchy stuff that leaves the listener wondering, “Where the fuck is the rest of the song?” Unfortunately, Bowl Ethereal is nothing more than a party trick, something that you’ll play a couple of times as a joke to your friends: “Hey, man, wanna make a bet that I can’t listen to an entire 7” in six minutes without increasing the turntable’s RPMs?”