“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.
“Portland, Oregon’s Tithe has been plying its trade since 2017. Starting out as a two-piece, with Matt Eiseman on guitars and vox, and Kevin Swartz behind the kit, the band released a self-titled EP that year. In 2018, bassist Alex Huddleston joined the fold and Tithe began work on their full-length debut, Penance. Despite dropping at the height of the pandemic, that record generated a little buzz around the band, with its fusion of death, black, grind and even hints of doom packed into its modest run time. Three years on and the trio is back with sophomore effort, Inverse Rapture.” Rise and Tithe.
“The Abbey of Thelema was a commune in Sicily run by Aleister Crowley. Home to the wild hedonism and magick of his cult, the Abbey met its unceremonious end in 1923, when Crowley’s shenanigans convinced Mussolini to boot him out of Italy. Finnish psychedelic doom outfit The Abbey aims to carry on the Abbey’s legacy. ,b>The Abbey’s debut Word of Sin draws inspiration from occult organizations and their mystical practices.” Nuns DO have fun.
“Submitting a new metal record for review in December is a hard row to hoe. The List Industrial Complex is gaining critical velocity, which means folks in our position are re-listening to the albums that most impressed us over the last 11 months and catching up on the highly regarded albums we haven’t yet heard. Unless you’re bringing your A game – or maybe the A game of a better band than yours – there’s a really good chance your album is going to be underwhelming by contrast. Dutch sludge doom band Gavran boldly present their sophomore full-length Indistinct Beacon this first week of December, the official start of EOY activity.” Indistinct scheduling.
“‘I miss SubRosa, and I don’t understand why there’s no other band out there like them,’ lamented a poor, tortured soul beneath a recent review of mine. Well, ask and ye shall receive, as the saying goes. Here I am to present for your entertainment, enjoyment(!), and critical assessment, The Otolith, a band that has risen from the ashes and sports four members of symphonic doom quintet SubRosa.” SunRoses to the faithful.
“Take a look at that incredible Beksiński art, and tell me what music you think it represents. Did you say stoner and sludge-infused alt-rock? I didn’t think so, but that’s what Might serve up in their sophomore record Abyss. The duo have certainly branched out from their more overtly sludgy eponymous debut, switching from stoner, to crust punk, to black metal, to prog rock, and to post-metal both within and between tracks.” Horse of a different void.
“Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a heavy brow, leaned into the wood and pushed. Long had they been lashed to the Wheel of Pain, sinews straining to honor their commitment to King Riff. Lo these many years did Conan’s toil yield downtuned sacrifices to the King, great heaving plates of troo doom crashing into each other as the sound of their collision rose to the clouds to challenge the thunder itself. Mighty indeed were Conan’s labors, and yet, as they strained against the Wheel, Conan couldn’t help but wonder: Is this all there is? Is it meant that I should spend my days cranking out an endless chain of plodding tribute? What is to be Conan’s and only Conan’s?” Crom as you are.
“I have recently come to the conclusion that it is sometimes a good exercise to deliberately review two records of the same genre back to back. Not to directly compare the two but to get one into the right mindset and to think about makes a great record in this particular field. And so it is that I find myself reviewing two stoner metal records in consecutive weeks. It’s lucky that I am not trying to compare them, however, as Copenhagen, Denmark’s Lucid Grave could not be more different—within the confines of stoner metal, anyway—from last week’s Holyroller.” Where the mountain meets the desert.
“Sludge metal has been a frequent bedfellow of serious, art-y post rock almost since the beginning of the genre. I’m not exactly sure why, but as a product of multiple art schools myself, I can confirm that I and other likeminded insufferable wanks folks are generally drawn to the resulting aesthetic thanks to its confrontational formal elements. Seminal groups like Neurosis and Isis built a template of harsh elegance decades ago that many contemporary bands, Cult of Luna, for instance, are happy to follow. Meanwhile, acts like Vile Creature, The Body, et al up the esoteric factor by injecting drone, noise, or electronics for downright disconcerting sonic textures. New York’s HUSH fall somewhere between these two approaches.” Suave sludge.
