When I saw the name of this band, UNMOTHERED, it really got me wondering what kind of music was in store for me. When I saw the look of the cover, the dread only heightened. Well, let’s start by unravelling the information that concerns UNMOTHERED. The band comes from Austin in Texas, USA. They were formed in 2009, and thus far have only produced two EP’s as far as I can gather. They are “Unmothered” from 2012 and “Umbra” from 2015. As this is my first encounter with UNMOTHERED, I can’t give you an inkling as to how the music on those records sounds. What I do know is this; the music is classified as Atmospheric Sludge Metal. At least it is when you look on Metal-archives.com. With that in mind I pushed the pay button, ready to be either disappointed or amazed. Well, the latter is certainly the case.

Atmospheric Sludge Metal this might be, but I would dare to say the music on “Corridors”, the debut album of UNMOTHERED has a lot more to offer than that. In most of the songs they strongly remind me of the first three albums of MASTODON. The way the riffs are built up, the sound of the guitars, it just has the same intensity that band had in the beginning of their career. There are big differences though. The drummer Josh Dawkins might be a busy bloke as well, but he’s not that much at the forefront as Brann Dailor is. Plus the vocals of Matt Walker are much more a combination of grunting and growling, with a lot less screaming than MASTODON used. And of course the intermezzos on the album, they really push the Atmospheric part. So, I would class this as the Dark and Dangerous Goth brother of MASTODON. UNMOTHERED has surpassed all my expectation. This is mint.

What is frustrating is trying to find all the information needed for the review. It took some time, but I got there. What I didn’t get hold of, though, is an official YouTube clip of one of the songs on the album. I only managed to find a demo video of title song, recorded in the rehearsal room. What this one does, is give you the confirmation that these guys are capable of being able to play live the music that has been put on this “Corridors” record. That is always a good thing to know, as it proves that UNMOTHERED are not robots or AI!