4 out of 5

Label: Tortuga Recordings

Produced by: 5ive

A nice extra dose of 5ive in our sadly limited collection of releases, “Versus” comes in a couple different flavors, an independently released version, and this Tortuga edition, which adds a couple of Justin Broadrick remixes, but also seems to lose a track. The missing track – Man or Marker – is a mostly solo, gloomy guitar affair; while not invaluable, I’d say its atmosphere is well substituted by the remixes, which also smartly bookend the EP, giving it an intro / outro vibe.

The two 5ive tracks lean more toward Hesperus rock, but are blended with aspects of Telestic Disfracture atmospherics, making it an interesting stepping stone between the two. That step isn’t wholly steady, as I’d say finding the exact balance occasionally eludes the duo, and similarly, because it’s not fully one thing or the other, it kinda feels like we’re not experiencing the ultimate version of a song like Soma. But, that’s easier to say now having heard Hesperus; at the time, Versus was genius, and exactly the kind of stuff I wanted to hear – heavy but not showy; headbang-y but with moments of being able to breathe. And that duality is obviously well met by Broadrick, whose “remixes” are anything but that, and instead give us compelling sound waves to build up and down from the rockers.