Trading in dark fantasy imagery and lumbering, fuzz-bolstered heavy metal muse Berlin, Germany-based sludge/doom metal trio PIECE both iterate and mutate their familiarly set craft on this finely curated sophomore full-length album. As a thoughtfully shaped listening experience ‘Rambler’s Axe‘ is comprised of entirely approachable, crowd-pleasing stuff built from fairly obviate inspiration which fans of popular sludge metal will appreciate. Though we couldn’t accuse these folks of any particularly original thought herein what their efforts lack in personage and depth is assuaged by fine production values and an overall huge sound.

Piece formed at some point prior to the release of their self-titled EP, ‘Piece‘, in 2017 where their too-direct grab at Matt Pike‘s style of riffcraft in High on Fire was given to variously hardcorish and stymied points of interest akin to late 90’s/early 2000’s Crowbar level catharses. While sludge metal has a long history in Germany these folks didn’t sound like they’d arisen from an artsy post-metal collective or noise-adjacent scene, instead carrying a straightforward doomed approach to start. They’ve apparently more of a history in hardcore punk and I think that’d shown up more readily around the edge of their earlier stuff but waned beyond the release of their doom slugged debut LP (‘Ancient Greed‘, 2023) several years later. Their general prospect is less tied to the evolution of, say, Lair of the Minotaur as that first album might appeal more to the earlier Behold! The Monolith fan or the squarely direct Pike-isms of Firebreather but all roads lead to pretty damned obvious points of inspiration. It wasn’t original and while that isn’t such a crime in category:general/”metal” they’d more-or-less run out of tuneful grooves to toss around midway though it was decent doomed stuff at its core.

Album number two boasts more of the same to start as opener “Demigod” thunders in cloven hooved and trampling through its ‘Cometh the Storm‘ worthy opening groove and permutations beyond. I’m not sure that riff was worth a full five minute bleed out in its snaking variation but the effect on a cranked stereo is yet primal, bass heavy stuff. That is to say that ‘Rambler’s Axe‘ is similarly juiced per its production values (engineering/mix from Christoph Jakobs @ Mahnmal Studios, mastering via Will Killingsworth @ Dead Air Studios) which once again achieve a natural crossover between High on Fire‘s infamous buzz-tones and I suppose the downtrodden layers of ‘Lifesblood for the Downtrodden‘ once we start hitting more tuneful pieces a la “Bastard Sword”. A great sound naturally carries the record once more but this time around the overall arrangement, pacing and impact of Piece‘s efforts appear all the more deliberate and varied.

Variety is typically a boon to any sludge metal band’s handicraft but in this case we’re getting less sludge/doom metal and more post-‘Surrounded by Thieves‘ heavy metal tranced pieces (see: “Owl Eyes”) which may be a fair deal less engrossing in their trod but differentiate better overall within repeated listening. The shape of ‘Rambler’s Axe‘ makes for easy listening though it feels like the album as a whole loses its edge nearby the endpoint via the suggested 9+ minute closer “Serpentfolk Tyel” and its heavy rock gilded exit. I’m not sure Piece‘ve exited the realm of puzzled-together tropes available to popular sludge metal here on their second LP and a lack of a compelling point of view makes for a pleasant listening experience void of lasting substance for my own taste and despite the inarguable high quality of their curation. I’d found more interest in their doom metal inspired side prior and thusly found myself iced out of an otherwise great sounding record. A moderate recommendation.

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