Kylesa – Exhausting Fire

Psychedelic Gothic For The Win

Despite starting out with a heavy metal punk background, Kylesa has thrived over the years, improving album after album with a little something different every time. Some would call it the band finding themselves; some would call it experimentation. Knowing the band’s history of musical and genre flexibility, it is hard to tell just what the listener may be getting into with the band’s latest album, Exhausting Fire.

Sounding halfway between a psychedelic groove and a murky goth club where everyone wears leather, Kylesa’s Exhausting Fire is sure to impress. The echo and spaciness of the songs set a fantastically heavy and dark mood, and the duality of the Laura Pleasants and Phillip Cope resonate with such melancholy and listlessness that it is hard not to be drawn in. Honestly, there is just a major groove throughout making it extremely easy to listen to and at the same time it never loses its rock edge. Calling the album “metal” would be a misnomer, as it is more psychedelic goth rock than anything.  While seen throughout, the goth roots are highly evident in “Night Drive,” where Cope’s tone is at times desperate, angry and even morose. Songs like “Out of my Mind,” contrarily, are more hard rock, giving the listener a little bit of a more distinct edge. This combination of styles and sounds meld together in a beautiful maelstrom of mystically dark music.

It is no shocker that Kylesa’s Exhausting Fire takes the cake against their earlier Ultraviolet. With this album, they prove they are getting better and better with every song. The band really seems to have found themselves and their tone within this album. However, who’s to say; the listeners may get something entirely different next go around. For a moment, however, they can cherish this little piece of gloom.