{"id":362725,"date":"2025-11-07T18:12:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/362725\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T18:12:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:12:21","slug":"beastwars-the-ship-the-sea-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/362725\/","title":{"rendered":"Beastwars – The Ship \/\/ The Sea Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Kiwi stalwarts specializing in thick, atmospheric sludge-doom goodness, Beastwars<\/strong> boast a strong track record, remaining a dependable force within their field. Sharing loose stylistic similarities with acts such as early Leviathan-era Mastodon<\/strong>, High on Fire, Crowbar<\/strong>, and Boss Keloid,<\/b> Beastwars<\/strong> continue blazing their own battered trail. Displaying resilience and determination to navigate various personal and career challenges, Beastwars<\/strong> march onwards with sixth album, The Ship \/\/ The Sea. Despite being a fan of their past work, especially Blood Becomes Fire and The Death of All Things<\/a>, I missed their 2023 covers album, Tyranny of Distance, and on reflection, I was surprised I had awarded their 2019 album IV<\/a> with a coveted 4.0 rating, as I haven\u2019t revisited it often when a Beastwars<\/strong> fix has spiked. Nevertheless, Beastwars<\/strong> is never less than solid, often operating a rung or two above that level across a consistently engaging, if underappreciated career. Now over half a decade removed from their last LP of original material, can these Wellington heavyweights muster something special?<\/p>\n

The striking cover art, a beautifully rendered oil painting from artist Nick Keller, illustrates the stormy, heaving turbulence pulsing through the belly of this mighty beast. The Ship \/\/ The Sea packs the raw, burly punch and requisite emotional power to simultaneously wrench hearts and bang heads. \u201cWe Don\u2019t Say Fear\u201d warmly welcomes listeners back into the comforting grip of the Beastwars<\/strong> experience. Its signature stomp of infectious, hard-rocking, and oh so chunky sludge-doom finds the four-piece in fine form. Beastwars<\/strong> deliver top-notch performances and heart-on-sleeve passion through a decidedly dark, melancholy collection, reflective of personal hardships and current global concerns inspiring the album\u2019s conception and lyrical themes. Beastwars<\/strong> pack power and emotion into concise timeframes, stripping back to their heavy, more straightforward roots without abandoning their sense of progressive adventure.<\/p>\n

Amidst bleaker tones, shuffling between the raw, gloomy misery of the ominous, soul-jabbing doom of standout cuts, \u201cGuardian of Fire\u201d and \u201cRust,\u201d to slightly more uplifting closer \u201cLight Leads the Way,\u201d Beastwars <\/strong>also bring the rocking, sludgy thunder to the equation. More urgent, traditionally infectious songs create welcome structural and pacing variety on such hooky delights as \u201cLevitate,\u201d bustling, psych-stoner surge of \u201cThe Storm,\u201d and heady, aggressive throes of \u201cBlood Will Flow.\u201d Listeners from the band\u2019s early days will no doubt enjoy the album\u2019s raw, swaggering edge, amped aggression and immense heaviness. Although The Ship \/\/ The Sea boasts many standout songs and a satisfyingly deep, resonant emotional punch, not everything comes together smoothly. While never exactly losing steam, the second half of the album experiences some pacing issues and lulls, not quite matching the hookier rockers and doom-laden highlights of the front-loaded first half. That is not to say the album\u2019s second half is lacking in potency, attested by the bruising grooves and hypnotic flow of \u201cThe Howling,\u201d and grinding riffs, catchy groove, and anguished howls on the slow-burning intensity of \u201cYou Know They\u2019re Burning the Land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thick doomy rhythms and beefy down-tuned grooves are laid down by the imposing rhythm section of James Woods (bass) and Nathan Hickey (drums), while guitarist Christian Pearce unleashes proggy flourishes and gloomy melodies through a dense filter of sludgy riffcraft, tasty stoner grooves, and punishing, morose doom. Meanwhile, Matt Hyde\u2019s distinctive, gruff roars and anguished bellows remain a key focal point and feature of the Beastwars<\/strong> formula. From overcoming a serious health battle and dealing with life\u2019s inevitable tough times and obstacles, Hyde also uses troubled world events as fuel for an intensely emotive, standout performance. The passion and intensity behind Hyde\u2019s vocals and raw, unvarnished sonic makeup lend the album its gritty, thumping edge.<\/p>\n

Recorded in a studio by the ocean, Beastwars<\/strong> fully embrace the album\u2019s spiritual and symbolic themes and connections to the ocean\u2019s unpredictable, turbulent, and unforgiving nature. The production lends the songs a rough, organic crunch and weightiness, perfectly syncing to the band\u2019s tough and gritty delivery, muscular rhythms, and piledriving riffing of the sludge, doom, and stoner varieties. Beastwars<\/strong> consistently write quality songs that fit snuggly in the sludge and doom domains, featuring rich depth, compositional subtletie,s and bleeding heart emotion. While perhaps not the band\u2019s most consistent or instantly hooky album, The Ship \/\/ The Sea is a grower that packs a hefty wallop, largely maintaining Beastwars<\/strong> stellar track record of pumping out high octane, harrowing, and sonically booming tunes.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

Score: <\/strong>3.5\/5.0
DR: <\/strong> 7| Format Reviewed<\/strong>:<\/strong> 320 kbps mp3
Label: <\/strong>Destroy Records
<\/a>Websites: <\/strong>beastwars.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/beastwars666<\/a>
Releases Worldwide<\/strong>: <\/strong>November 7th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiwi stalwarts specializing in thick, atmospheric sludge-doom goodness, Beastwars boast a strong track record, remaining a dependable force…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":362726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1444,63696,175912,175913,175914,66954,171,175915,42788,975,175916,2290,11853,23672,175917,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-362725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1444","9":"tag-3-5","10":"tag-beastwars","11":"tag-boss-keloid","12":"tag-destroy-records","13":"tag-doom-metal","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-heavy-rock","16":"tag-mastodon","17":"tag-music","18":"tag-new-zealand-metal","19":"tag-review","20":"tag-reviews","21":"tag-sludge","22":"tag-the-ship-the-sea","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115509772967606611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}