“Those familiar with the band’s previous work will find it mostly unchanged here. Morne sit at the intersection of post-metal and doom with the residue of crust and sludge corroding any exposed surfaces. Structurally, they like to write a big, driving riff with methodical drums pounding away and then just camp on that for a while. Then they build a house there and put down roots.” Morne hasn’t broken.
“Surprise! I know many of you have been patiently waiting for Holdeneye‘s review of the fourth full-length from UK death sludge slingers Warcrab, given how he so shamelessly ran his tongue all over their exoskeleton’s undercarriage when he reviewed their last outing, Damned In Endless Night. Well this time you get me. Don’t worry, Holdy‘s fine. He’s certainly not bound and ball-gagged in my garden shed dressed like Adventure Time’s Finn the Human, slipping in and out of consciousness in a chloroform haze. He was simply busy this week and remembered how much I also enjoyed Warcrab’s last album, so he turned over reviewing duties to yours truly.” Pick the Crab!
“Stortregn have always been a meloblack band with a tech death heart, but Finitude is a faster, meaner, and more varied beast than ever. The album is tightly wound and asymmetrical, unlike 2021’s Impermanence which counterbalanced the band’s labyrinthine instrumental prowess with nearly cinematic song structures, giving us sweeping epics like “Ghosts of the Past” and “Grand Nexion Abyss.” Many of the band’s signature aesthetics are still intact.” Tech vs. man.
“Kadabra play a fairly stock standard fuzzed out stoner/psych rock heavily reliant on the 70s for aesthetic direction as well as contemporary revivalists like The Black Angels. Umbra has a bit more terrestrial than cosmic approach, with only a few distorted warping or echo effects, however Kadabra do use electric organ and layered vocals over their earthy guitar grooves.” Big hat, some magic.
When a new release appears from the man behind 16 Horsepower and Wovenhand, a rare double review becomes mandatory. Allow Cherd and Carcharodon to explain why David Eugene Edwards is a big fookin’ deal on both sides of the pond and everywhere else.
“I’ve been listening to, thinking, and talking about Incantation a lot lately. If I had wanted a palate cleanser after our monumental ranking piece, I could have chosen a better promo than ,b>FossilizationLeprous Daylight. São Paulo’s V and P are no strangers to the AMG gauntlet, making up half of sludge doom outfit Jupiterian, whom we’ve favorably reviewed twice. For this project, the Brazilian duo, like their New Jersey forebearers, make grimy death metal full of searing tremolo riffs, disgustingly guttural vocals, and wretched doom stretches.” Incanting the remains.
“Phoenix, Arizona’s Thra start with that syrupy death metal reduction and ask themselves, “How can we make this even uglier and stupider?” The answer: with sludge, of course. Yes, the one metal form even less concerned with hygiene, boasting the highest aural density and the lowest dynamic range.” Where the sludge live.
“Those familiar with Somnuri’s previous work can expect a similar Cobb salad of influences from early Mastodon to Helmet to savage NYHC. Somnuri and Nefarious Wave occasionally added passages of straight sludge doom in the vein of YOB, and the removal of these marks the largest shift in sound evident in Desiderium.” Sludge as a lifestyle choice?
“Most 70-minute albums don’t justify their own existence. In the past, UK band Fen have both succeeded and failed at that task. Doom_Et_Al fanboi’d all over hour-long The Dead Light while elegant Lady of the Night Madam X found the 75-minute Winter entirely too much Fen. The atmoblack outfit now return with the 68-minute Monuments to Absence.” Everlong?
“The United Kingdom’s The River call their style of music “pastoral post-doom.” Pastoral; synonymous with idyllic. In landscape painting it means a pleasing mix of open vistas, farmland, rolling hills, maybe some lazily grazing livestock. There’s a point when “doom” becomes a misnomer. The River indeed inhabits this tenuous space.” Doom in quiet places.
