ÆGES will release their first full-length, The Bridge, next month for The Mylene Sheath. So before that happens, we should pay heed to this pre-cursor single that came out back in June 2011 on Hawthorne Street, because it's quick, righteous and probably an apt preview.

With current and ex-members of acts like Pelican, Undertow and the Rise, it's hard to accurately guess just what ÆGES would provide. What they apparently kick out is sneering, fuzzy rock with a lot of grungy and sludgy flavor. But as the lead title track shows, it's weird just how playful the band really sound thrashing it out. Pretty, almost falsetto vocal melodies bubble up between all the riffing and super fat low end. "Dirt" is more mid-tempo, but just as brashly melodic, with a more punishing, almost industrial-metal bridge.

If there's some sort of midpoint between early Nirvana and Torche's "fuck yeah!" fist-pumping (Foo Fighters' self-titled maybe?), ÆGES are picking it up and running with it, but adding in their own cool elements along the way from an impressively wide variety of metal subgenres. It sounds like there'll be one Bridge worth crossing in April.

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Roaches b/w Dirt