If Bong are channeling Sabbath, worshiping Hawkwind, and sounding like Sleep; then, USX may as well be worshiping Hawkwind, while channeling Neil Young, and sounding like Neurosis. Their latest offering is the 40-minute song/record "The Valley Path". A record relatively limited in scope and length, compared to last year's "Run Thick In The Night", but nevertheless a fantastic sonic experience from start to finish. Psychedelic metal might not exist as a well-constituted subgenre, though it would remain as one of the very few terms capable of describing the music of U.S. Christmas, which is far from the spectrum of rock in general. While some other terms that could also come as close, in categorizing the sound of USX, would be, respectively; folk metal, progressive and post-metal. And as far as the folk metal consensus goes, USX will have barely anything to do with it, but, given that particular consensus (same as progressive metal) has already been manipulated to a point-of-no-return, altering what the term suggests at its core, to disguise a number of worthless pop-wannabes as its representative artists and therefore its definition; one could see USX -- and Neurosis before that -- as both the founders and forerunners of genuine folk metal.
