### Voyager: Voyager

#### 17/02/09 || Kampfar

I am no Voyager, not at all, but would be so if I had a B-52 at my disposal, one of course carrying more hellfires and nukes than anyone thought possible. Hell yeah. Nah, I’m not into nukes, headshots and exploding guts are ze shit. And so is sludge, this American lot, hailing from Boston exactly, namely yet another reason why I’m about to carve “sludge is so fucking awesome, it borders on making me cream my pants” onto my penis. Not that Voyager is a pure and undiluted sludge orchestra, not even close, as filth, bile and venom aren’t at all ingredients in what they got cooking.

But even though Voyager doesn’t sound as if they want to stab you in the eye(s) using dirty syringes loaded with something nasty, be sure of one thing, they do know how to pound their point through. See, even though this EP is sprinkled with quite some mellow and a fair bit of melancholy, it is first and foremost a heavy and really rather churning affair. In other words, them here bastards fortunately sport a rock solid habit of firing up the engine long before you get the sense of being trapped inside a fluffy LSD trip. Unlike Burst, for instance.

Ok, now it’s time for me to praise Mr. Toye and his vocal abilities. Ehm, I hail thee, or something, for you are as emotionally attached to the music as a Siamese twin is to his or her extremely close and likewise miserable relative. Poor bastards. Anyways, yer almost growl is entirely ace, Mr. Toye, an integral as in irreplaceable part of this band’s sound your pipes most definitively are. And I guess I have to include your friends as well, for Voyager is, no doubt about it, a proper band and not just some musicians who happened to end up in a band together.

This EP sure smells like team-spirit, it oozes band-chemistry even, and I’m happy to report that it sounds quite fantastic as well. Fantastic as in: crystal-clear yet with a heavy and churning bottom. The excellent engineering at hand makes sure that if you play this shit properly loud, it’ll entertain your ears whilst kicking you in the stomach. Not in a violent manner, mind you, but firm and resolutely so.

Put short, if you can dig heaviness even when it isn’t draped in sickness and filth, give this one a go.

8 out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Forgotten Empire
- Website: Voyager MySpace
- Band
- Devin Toye: vocals, keyboard
- Patrick Mion Jr.: guitar
- Matt Giordano: guitar
- Sal Lardizzone: bass
- Keith Gentile: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Crushing winds
- 02. Static pulse
- 03. Drifter
- 04. Avulsion
- 05. Surfacing