Sumac’s New Track is All You Hoped it Would Be (Members of Isis, Baptists, Russian Circles)

Sumac, the new band we told you about back in September that features Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom), Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists) and Brian Cook (Russian Circles, ex-Botch, ex-These Arms Are Snakes), have finally released some of their music to the world, mixed by — who else? — Kurt Ballou. So how do the band’s jams stack up against their most excellent pedigree?

Quite well, thankfully. Noisey has the premiere of “Thorn in the Lion’s Paw,” and it’s a ripper from start to finish, all eight minutes of it. Unsurprisingly, Sumac sounds much like the sum of their parts, but there are no specific elements you can point to and say, for example, “that’s the Isis-like part,” which is a good thing — Sumac are entirely their own beast. What I’m drawn to most about the track on first listen is the dynamic — “Thorn” has all sorts of peaks and valleys, all in the name of moving the song forward without getting too dramatic for drama’s sake. For example, the song proper doesn’t start until more than a minute in, but the intro sets the tone perfectly and feels integral to the story.

Check it out below. The Deal comes out on February 3rd via Profound Lore and SIGE.