Kylesa still burns bright

Savannah's long-standing sludge-metal mammoth Kylesa has never trudged around the same sonic mire for too long. With the group's latest album, Exhausting Fire (released Oct. 2 via Season of Mist), singer and guitarist duo Phillip Cope and Laura Pleasants have culled their record collections to find inspiration and expand their group's ever-evolving sound. With more than 14 years and seven albums to its name, the band could easily go through the motions, recreating the sounds that have propelled the group all along. But for Kylesa, complacency is not an option.

??
Revered, at least partially, for the group's ornate, two-drummer assault, Kylesa's lineup has the appearance of slimming down recently — stripped to its core members, co-founders Cope and Pleasants and longtime drummer Carl McGinley. But the group has hardly settled in as a power trio. "Live, we are still a five-piece," Cope says. "It's a little confusing, since there are three of us in our promo pictures. In the studio and for songwriting purposes, there's just three of us," he adds. "We've been the main songwriters for a very long time. On this new album, it's the three of us performing everything, with Carl playing both drum tracks in the studio."

??
Nothing has changed creatively or logistically with Kylesa's latest personnel shifts. Bassist Chase Rudeseal has performed live with the band for nearly two years. And second drummer John Edwards is on his sophomore round of touring with the group. According to Cope, both musicians have added their own twist to old and new Kylesa songs. "We want them to be comfortable up there and feel they are contributing, as well," he says. "Some things they keep the same and some things they change up."

??
This sonic flexibility should come as no surprise. New tracks that do not stray far from the sludge-metal formula, such as the moody, slow-burner "Lost and Confused," pack too many tempo changes to get the paint-by-numbers treatment live.

??
Each of the five players lives in Savannah, allowing the group to pour hours into rehearsing before taking the songs from Exhausting Fire on tour. According to Cope, this dedication reflects its core members' refusal to simply go through the motions. "We want people who have come out to see us a few times to think this is the best," he says.

??
In recent years, Kylesa has shifted away from the demonic sludge of Southern metal defined by Cope's previous band, Damad, to embrace classic psychedelic and space-rock drift. An album-closing cover of one of the most obvious songs imaginable, "Paranoid," owes more sonically to German prog and Kraut rock than Black Sabbath's doom-laden riffage.

??
With complacency out of the question, for Cope and his longtime bandmates, the Exhausting Fire tour captures a moment in time — a psychedelic fugue state burning brightly in the here and now. But rest assured, the core trio will make more tweaks to its sound and make the next evolutionary step, when the time is right.