So if you took the angular, earthy percussive assault of Kylesa or Leviathan era Mastodon, threw in the stoner heft of High On Fire, the sorrowful dirges of Crowbar and a very slight hint of psychedelic doom like Rwake, Minsk or Samothrace then name the band after Ivan Drago’s famous line from Rocky IV, you get Michigan’s If He Dies, He Dies and their very impressive third album, an album which will make me seek out the prior two releases.

Mastered by Scott Hull, The Rise…The Fall is 10 tracks of earthy, riff driven metal than crosses an number of genres from stoner doom, prog rock, Southern tinged sludge, traditional doom and post rock. However, it all comes together to form one excellent album and surely bring the band some well deserved attention.

With Brent Eckhart’s gravelly, gruff voice and drummer Daine Hammerle’s choppy but steady backbone, The Rise … The Fall has no weak points or filler as if shifts from rollicking, sturdy, lurching numbers like “Heroine”, “Destroyer”, “Paralysis” and “Storm…” to more draining, doomy textures as heard on “…Bringer”, “…Like a Man Possessed”, and personal favorite, the rending “Feels Like the Very First Time”. Heck, there’s even some elegant swirling instrumentation and post rock shimmer on “Save Your (Savior)” and 7 ½ minute closer “Baptism By Fire”.

The end result is 44 minutes of perfectly paced and delivered music that keeps your attention from start to finish as the various hues and textures intertwine, separate and rejoin within the crumbling, doomy framework of sludge metal’s nervous ear and post rocks introspection.

Excellent stuff.

[Visit the band's website]

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