“It’s 11 years since New York’s experimental jazz duo, Swami Lateplate, released their debut, Doom Jazz. To be fair, both its members, Bobby Previte and Jamie Saft, are extremely well-respected jazz musicians and they have been busy with other ventures. Drummer Previte, now in his 70s, has been a presence on the NYC jazz scene since the late 1970s, collaborating with the likes of John Zorn and Elliott Sharp.” Swami, salami, doom Jazz bomby.
“The last record from the curiously-named Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree, 2019’s Grandmother, did not grace these pages but for some reason, I was aware of it and it made enough of an impression on me that I was interested to review its successor, Aion. Buzzing around since 2014, Bees released their debut, Medicine, in 2017. A whimsy, faintly progressive doom record with a few hints of stoner around the fringes, it was solid. Grandmother was an altogether more interesting affair. A tightly-written slab of doom that upped the progressive quota by dialing in some psychedelia, as well as a rumbling darker edge, it showed a lot of promise.” Tapping out the vein.
May Day is upon us, in July! Join us as we demonstrate what focused spring/early summer Filter cleaning can accomplish when you have motivated technicians.
“Lacking imagination or originality is not a charge that I have seen directed at Mizmor, and certainly Prosaic launches out of the blocks in an onslaught of blackened doom, with even some sludgy nods thrown in. Fast, bludgeoning, and furious, initially it feels like a cleaner version of Mizmor’s self-titled debut, with more than a bit of Yellow Eyes and Primitive Man thrown into the mix.” Mizmor or Mizless?
“Hungary’s The Devil’s Trade never fails to challenge my ability to fairly evaluate music. There are two reasons for this: firstly, this darkest of folk music is so effective in its emotional gravity and genuine sorrow that it consumes me and often clouds my judgment; secondly, those tangible qualities that I typically critique in the music I listen to most play different roles and have different effects in this environment. It’s what made previous release The Iron Peak tricky to rate, too, and I’m grateful to see that in challenging my abilities as a reviewer, The Devil’s Trade hasn’t changed a bit.” Devil in the details.
You know that scene in The Last of Us where we first meet the clickers, which can’t see but are attracted to the slightest sound? This is how I regard my fellow AMG scribes, as sightless fungi that I must not alert to the tastiest morsels in the sump until that point in time when AMG Promo Pit Rules allow me to make a breakneck sprint for the album I’ve been eyeing up. Until then, I have to stay absolutely silent. So it was that for almost a month after (the apparently, and happily, rejuvenated) Hypnotic Dirge Records alerted me to the existence and impending release of Beholden, the debut by Inherus.” Shroom squad.
“Grief is both intensely personal, and a commonality between us all. This admixture of the private and the relatable can make music through which it is channeled incredibly powerful. In a genre like doom, already associated with the melancholy and the morose, these emotions fit naturally and reinforce both the sense of sadness and the potency of the music itself. The recent output of Swallow the Sun initially springs to mind. Death of Giants is another such act.” Giant feelz.
“The follow-up to 2019’s Drifting Towards Inevitable Death, this is the second full-length from God Disease. The band’s early work, beginning with 2014 EP, Abyss Cathedral, was very much death metal oriented. But, over the band’s three subsequent EPs and Drifting …, the trio increasingly embraced doom in its sound.” Faith infection.
“71TonMan is roughly equal to ten adult tyrannosaurus rex; seven minke whales; moving to my own favored species, two megalodons; or one Leopard 2 tank, of the type recently pledged by Poland, Germany and others to Ukraine. And this seems appropriate, as a sizeable, if ponderous, battle tank is a pretty good comparator for this doom/sludge outfit.” Weights and pleasures.
“It has taken some time for me to warm up to Big|Brave’s brand of noise/drone/doom. I didn’t love 2017’s Ardor, but it did pique my interest. Minimalist formalism in music doesn’t offend me the same way it does others, but their single-chord experiments didn’t resonate at the time. Still, the pairing of Robin Wattie’s waif-ish vocals with heavy drone was something new, so I kept an eye out for them. I warmed up to the stark elegance on follow-up A Gaze Among Them, but it wasn’t until Leaving None But Small Birds, their collaboration with The Body, that the appeal became revelatory.” Bigly braveness.
