Juur Confused On 'Exile'

Estonian prog-alt-stoner rockers Juur don't hang about. Having only played their first gig in December 2014, the Tallin based four-piece wasted no time in releasing their debut album 'Exile' only just over a year later.

The first thing you notice about 'Exile' is how intimidatingly long it is – with its longest track topping nine minutes, the album clocks in at just over fifty minutes long. An easy listen, this ain't.

Claiming to be influenced by a wide range of “progressive to stoner, post rock to alternative metal”, you'd expect Juur to sound a bit more mental than they actually do; despite all of their influences, they come off as generic far too often.

For every riff that hits home, there are three that seem to have come from the prog-metal bargain bin. I can't help but think that if they were brutally honest with their own music and trimmed some of that fat, they'd shave off at least two minutes from – and vastly improve – each song on the record.

For all this negativity, 'Exile' contains some moments that really shine. 'Turncoat' opens with a head-scratching riff before expanding into full blown stoner rock, lead single 'Throw Up' boasts a meaty chorus featuring some surprisingly clean and melodic vocals, and 'Amun Ra' contains one of the best riffs Mastodon never wrote. The musicianship is excellent throughout – there's intricate interplay between instruments all across this record, and the vocal performance covers all bases from powerful to delicate.

The production of this record finds itself centre-stage as often as the songwriting. Frequent use of delay on the lead vocals lends an expansive tone to proceedings, rather than the muddy, garbled mess it can often lead to. The album as a whole has a very raw sound – a sound that is sometimes a bit too raw for the style that Juur work in.

Overall, 'Exile' isn't a bad album – just confused. The vocal lines meander aimlessly, and the listener is often left with the feeling that more needs to happen in each track to justify the record's length. While there are a number of good moments, the album never really shifts out of second gear, and a lack of coherence between these moments leaves 'Exile' sounding a bit self-indulgent.

4/10

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