Savannah, GA · sludge metal · psych metal

Kylesa

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Savannah sludge-psych institution — dual drummers, buzzsaw riffs, and swirling psychedelia, returned from a long hiatus with the heaviness intact.

Kylesa formed in Savannah, Georgia, in 2001, emerging from the same regional scene that produced Baroness and Black Tusk. Guitarist Phillip Cope had already spent the 1990s playing in Savannah hardcore and sludge bands, including Damad, and had been booking touring acts at a local all-ages club, work that earned him a reputation as something of a godfather figure in the city's metal scene. Laura Pleasants, from North Carolina, joined as the band's other guitarist and vocalist.

The band's name is a variation on kilesa mara, a Buddhist term for delusory mental states. Days after Kylesa's first show, in 2001, bassist Brian Duke died from an epileptic seizure; the band finished its self-titled debut album, released in 2002, in his memory.

The band built its sound on sludge metal's thick, downtuned riffing, but pulled it toward stoner rock and psychedelia, with traded vocals between Cope and Pleasants giving the songs two distinct centres of gravity.

From 2006, records including To Walk a Middle Course and Time Will Fuse Its Worth were made with two drummers, Carl McGinley and Jeff Porter, playing at once, a setup that became one of the band's identifying features live and on record. Later albums leaned further into atmosphere and effects-heavy guitar work while keeping the low-end weight intact.

Kylesa went on indefinite hiatus in 2016. The band returned eight years later with a new rhythm section, John John Jesse and Roy Mayorga, both formerly of Nausea, with Cope and Pleasants remaining as the only original members.

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sludge metalpsych metal