Middian

Age Eternal (Metal Blade)
by Brian Varney

OK, yeah, Middian is the new project by Mike Scheidt of YOB fame, and a lot of what you hear on Age Eternal is going to sound familiar to YOB fans – the songs are still long and ever-changing (five songs, ranging in length from six to 16 minutes, the whole shebang running just under an hour), Mike still sings through the chorus pedal, and crushing guitar riffs abound at nearly every moment. So I guess what I’m saying is if you liked YOB, especially the Metal Blade albums, you’re gonna like Middian. I dunno how much songwriting input, if any, bassist Will Lindsay and drummer Scott Headrick have, but you don’t have to listen for too long to realize this is the product of the same imagination responsible for YOB.

But for those who didn’t get a chance to hear YOB and don’t know what I’m talking about, I guess you could call it doom metal writ large and not be wrong, but to label it as such just feels like such a massive understatement. It’s hard to summarize something so epic in scope in just a few words, especially as the emotions evoked by the songs change as often as the songs themselves. The songs rarely stay the same for more than a few moments, but I don’t want you to think this is some kinda Naked City/Dillinger Escape Plan spazcore. The changes I’m talking about are more in the order of the changing of the tide or the seasons, something that is both completely natural and utterly devastating. Things are a bit darker and angrier this time around, so that means more loud parts and more death growls, and because of the massive scale on which the music is operating, the anger feels a bit overwhelming, as if the Earth itself is angrily lashing out. If played back at the proper ear-splitting volume, you’ll be expecting the heavens to fall, Old Testament-style, by the record’s midway point.
(www.metalblade.com)