Litany for the Whale strikes a solid balance on their debut EP, Dolores, finding a comfortable middle between simply blistering, heavy hardcore and more artistic, experimental flourishes.

"A Sleep" is merely a noisy buildup of room clutter, acoustics and creaking doors along with some fuzz before the burly "A Wake" comes forward with metallic, pulsing riffs and a barely audible, distorted snarling vocal comes in. But the song quickly recedes a bit so that it can create a massive crescendo, an upward swing that pummels around the two-minute mark in a certainly Pg. 99-esque manner. The weird intersections between melody, frustrated singing and just heavy moments in "Rotting on the Shoreline" actually kinda recall the weirder parts of Cave In's metalcore era, as does some of its choking followup, "Lord of the Gallows." A pair of ominous, softly weeping acoustic guitars make up the surprisingly beautiful "Philistines."

Dolores does lose you at various points, but manages to mostly hold you with a compelling, brute force, a smoggy, bass-fueled propulsion of sound that can hopefully be expanded upon for the next time around.

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A Wake
Lord of the Gallows

Teenage Disco Bloodbath will be issuing the CD version later this summer.