12 Days of Christmetal: An Ache for the Distance - The Atlas Moth - 2011

An Ache for the Distance is the type of record that doesn't often make it into my collection anymore. There's lot of doomy sludge on the shelves, both indie and larger label, and there was a time when I wanted to hear nothing else. But time and tastes change and my collection has largely shifted away from that sound in recent years. Until, then, The Atlas Moth comes along with a record popping up all over 2011 Top Tens and featuring a nude, buxom woman all over its artwork. Done. Sold. So, An Ache for the Distance is good to look at but how does it sound?

It's a dense, heavy record and it's got more than a little psychedelic tinge that sets it apart from and a notch above run of the mill sludge. That said, An Ache for the Distance does not strike me as a record I will reach for often. Despite its edginess, its listenability in the light of its experimental sound An Ache... never quite settles into a satisfying groove, moving instead like an enveloping cloud of complicated sound that weighs heavy on the lungs and leaves you gasping at the end as if pulling away from an overextended bong hit. I've been there - and I've been very, very happy there - but I cannot quite go back again.