Review Summary: Shades of gray
Private Prisons’ debut LP is, as the band name may suggest, a bleak and angry listen. This California collective introduces us to a gloomy cocktail of genre influences ranging from black metal to sludge to post-metal to dark ambient - this didn’t feel like an album in which the musicians have fully figured out their true niche yet, but the grim mood remains constant throughout.
Excommunication starts strong. Opener “Homes” moves at leisurely pace during its ten-plus minute runtime - it’s the classic kind of great post-metal track, a slow climb into ever heavier terrain. The brutality is good, but the sense of atmosphere is even better. None of the following five tracks approach that first song’s grandiosity and scope, although some of them attempt a similar approach. “Woods”, for example, manages to feel somewhat low-key, even as it inexorably marches forward. Meanwhile, other tunes aspire for a more balls-to-the-wall and crushing metal direction - “Ghosts” is the most effective example of that subset, all riffs and rage.
In the final analysis, Private Prisons are most successful here when they lean upon more delicate buildups and measured arrangements rather than a straightforward bludgeoning of the listener - as an analogy, consider the type of horror movie director who excels at crafting a sense of creeping dread rather than living off overt violence and the ensuing buckets of gore. This isn’t to say that the more blunt moments here can’t sometimes absolutely rule (the aforementioned “Ghosts” is a prominent counterpoint), but the times when Private Prisons slide into Primitive Man-esque, frothing at the mouth, territory are often the least convincing (a la the unhinged vocal segment in “Drains” which close out the album on a rather sour note). With all that said, though,
Excommunication is a quite successful attempt at a first full-length, encapsulating a number of sounds in a fairly coherent package. You kinda know what you’re getting from that cover art, and, yes indeed, if you’re here for the filth and fury, come on in.
