To Walk a Middle Course

Occupation

• Laura Pleasant: guitar, vocals
• Phillip Cope: guitar, vocal samples
• Corey Barhorst: bass, vocals, samples
• Brandon Baltzley: Drums

To Walk a Middle Course is the second studio album by American sludge band Kylesa.

Formation

The title of the album were written by the band in extended jam sessions jointly, they met over a period of about half a year almost every day for samples. The texts were written by Phillip Cope and Laura Pleasant. The album was produced by Alex Newport, one of the founders of Fudge Tunnel, it was the first time for the band that they had been working with a professional producer. The recordings took place in October 2004 in Los Angeles, and the band was satisfied with the result, the sound was better than anything she had previously recorded.

Title list

Reception

Even before the release of the album led the American music magazine Spin the band as " the next big thing " and emphasized the diversity of musical influences from Black Flag to Black Sabbath. The reviews of the album were correspondingly positive. Oliver Cheerful from Ox fanzine called the To Walk a Middle Course as a " highlight ", which is mainly settled in the mid- tempo range music bubble around a formally and especially the vocals of Laura Pleasant was a " power". Stylistically he sees Kylesa even as a punk band, but with influences from crust, metal and psychedelic. Alex Henderson of Allmusic has trouble with the classification of the music in a certain genre and selects as a general term Alternative Metal. He particularly emphasizes the alternation between loud, dissonant and quiet, atmospheric passages, however, believes that the album WOULD places undecided.