What One Becomes

The Northwestern metal band takes a huge leap forward with this impeccably engineered display of doom. Like the trunk of an ancient tree, “Rigid Man” is dense and primeval—its heaving rhythms will leave you picturing a behemoth rolling a boulder up a mountaintop in a thunderstorm. From a squalling haze of noise, “Image of Control” coalesces into a deeply satisfying cudgel-swinging riff. Unlike its doom metal peers, Sumac is never drowsy. Their musical ambitions heat up “Blackout”, a writhing epic that occupies the overlapping territory between Sleep’s stoner metal, Sub Pop’s grunge and Slint’s scathing math rock.