There’s so much joy to be had in Enveletration, the fourth full-length from Seattle’s Sandrider. It’s a celebration from start to finish with equal parts old school Baroness, Unsane, early At The Drive-In, and ASG somewhere in the mix as well as a whole lotta heft, heaviness, and heart.
You’re not likely to find a record with the kind of flow that Sandrider has put together with Enveletration in this, the year of our soon-to-be robot lords 2023. It all starts with “Alia” and a seemingly serene guitar fade in from Jon Weisnewski before all hell breaks loose and the bombast from Jesse Roberts’ bass and Nat Damm’s gargantuan drumming kicks in and becomes unrelenting for a solid almost six minutes of straight up raucous riffs and robust rhythm section mastery. The title track sets the stage even more of what’s to come by continuing the raucous onslaught with “Circles” following and slowing things up ever so slightly but more so just leaning into some tight grooves and a hearty bass boom from Roberts as the vocal melodies float to the forefront.
“Tourniquet” gives us some slamming growls from Weisnewski to start and Damm’s dynamic drumming right off the bat while “Weasel” offers up a quirky little number that’s like a more raw Wailin’ Storms tune and “Slumber” brings back the bravado along with some gnarly vocal lines that offset the incessant, ahem, wailing from the bass, guitars, and drums. “Proteus” is a droning Sludge Rawk opus that’s both momentous and magical with screams interspersed with clean harmony vocal lines creating a perfect scenario, “Priest” is just pure RAWK from start to finish, “Ixian” enlightens with another slow roller that expands upon the Sandrider sound by drifting between Mastodon-like majesty and Moody Blues-inspired vocal runs, and closer “Grouper” is a rager that’s akin to ordering as many as you can before last call is through with some truly anthemic riff work from Weisnewski before the end inevitably comes.
Enveletration is out now through Satanik Royalty Records with copies available now by clicking here or here. And for the latest from Sandrider, follow them across their socials by heading here, here, or here.