KYLESA has achieved improbable amounts of success for a band that was once considered a scrappy underdog in a Georgia scene dominated by MASTODON and BARONESS, but Kylesa has reached its current stature through a combination of hard work and writing highly interesting and engaging records that are as inspired by post-punk and FUGAZI as much as they are by metal's usual paradigms. Ultraviolet sees Kylesa exploring its component parts to their logical endpoints, as ‘We’re Taking This’ backs up the bravado of its title with one of the group’s heaviest riffs while ‘Unspoken’, ‘Low Tide’ and ‘Vulture’s Landing’ could be on JOY DIVISION or DINOSAUR JR. records if the songs weren’t so caustic and, at times, disorienting. Kylesa is cleary is at peace and at ease with travelling well outside delineated boxes and it’s exactly that adherence to doing whatever it wants that makes this collective so fascinating record after record.
