It’s easy to imagine this South Yorkshire quartet obsessing over the end of the world. Their 2014 debut, Leave With Us, was strewn with ruminations about cults and conspiracies, interlaced with thumping, breeze block-sized riffery in the vein of Isis, Pelican and QOTSA.
Its follow-up comes at a fitting time; the world in 2016 is a scary place and accordingly, sparse, icy electronics and a palpable sense of dread have crept steadily into the band’s brawny sound.
Dark ambience weaves around the pummelling riffs of Spells to reach a Korn-esque chorus while the brooding prophecies of Paradise Lost infiltrate the deathly Unconditional. Everything Is OK is heavy in more ways than one; vocalist Lee Storrar’s hypnotic and potent melodies speak about weighty subjects, but centrepiece Codes is the album’s most startling moment. Bubbling underneath sinister keys, Storrar intones of a predatory sexual liaison that ends in murder: ‘I rain down the blows, cover us in blood.’ This is striking stuff that ensures Servers will make their mark.
