“The Order of Israfel’s 2014 debut Wisdom became a bit of a sleeper for yours truly. I gave it a positive review and saw the potential, but didn’t expect to return to it quite as much as I have. The combination of classic doom with tough biker rock proved hard to ignore and though it missed my year end lists, it’s become a regular part of my “free range” listening time.” Free Steel Druhm!
“Sometimes a band comes out of nowhere and takes a baseball bat to the established way of doing things. Whether that means adding banjos to black metal or incorporating 70s prog into doom/death, it can result in absolute triumph or a total grease fire. It’s those unexpected triumphs in particular that make music such a visceral and exciting medium and when a band pulls off something new and unusual, they deserve respect and admiration. Unknown Italian doomsters Messa want to be the next trend wrecker and to that end they’ve fused dark ambient weirdness and minimalist drone onto old school, traditional doom on their eye-opening debut, Belfry.” No one expected this Italian Inquisition!
“Oh, Ghost… what have you brought upon us? Since the masked Swedes hit paydirt with their patented brand of Scooby-Doobie Doom™ via Opus Eponymous back in 2010, there’s been an influx of retro-rockin’ stoner doom bands looking to drive their own Mystery Machines™ over well-navigated roads. Granted, for each one that wows us, there are several more that we wish would just go away. Those meddling little brats! I would have gotten away with it if not for them.
“Windhand is the bane of those cursed with ADD. They write long, glacially slow, minimalist doom songs with little variation or tempo shifts. Their songwriting approach is mostly limited to unearthing one mammoth riff and beating you with it for anywhere from six to fourteen minutes without respite, mercy or bathroom breaks.” The beatings will continue until morale improves and/or cake is served.
“An American author, poet, philosopher and historian by the name of Henry Thoreau once said “If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.” Nowhere does that apply more than to Uncle Acid.” Do you have a (night) creepy uncle?
“Apart from Black Sabbath, no doom band can claim the same progenitor status Pentagram can. Coming into existence in 1971, they were the first American doom band and along with their slightly older British brothers in arms, they wrote the book on the entire genre. They also penned another book over the years on how to become the ultimate obscure, underground and kvlt act and stay that way for four fucking decades without ever getting proper recognition.” Last days are not here!
“Since picking up Endsville, a split EP of Godhunter and Destroyer of Light material, it has come to my attention that Tucson-based Godhunter is getting quite the buzz these days.” Doom from the Great Southwest is hot these days.
“The Skull has an origin story that’s weirder than most. A few years back, several members of doom legends Trouble found themselves out of the band, and decided to form a “tribute” to their former group. Besides the irony of a tribute band containing 3/5ths of the band they are tribute-ing, The Skull quickly proved their credentials onstage. At a packed hometown gig in Chicago, I witnessed the band deliver a set of long-unheard Trouble classics. Eric Wagner (vocals), Jeff Olson (drums) and Ron Holzner (bass) sounded predictably solid, while Lothar Keller and Matt Goldsborough handily replicated the guitar interplay of Trouble’s recorded work. But when the band announced an album of original material, I was skeptical at first…” Can The Skull give us more trouble than Trouble? One can only hope.
Well, this is a bit of a surprise. I never heard of Bloody Hammers until I reviewed their self-titled debut in February, and now they’re back with a follow-up a mere seven months later! Talk about productivity! While I liked aspects of the debut and their Hour of 13 and Witchfinder General meets Danzig approach to retro “occult rock,” things felt a bit underwhelming as a whole and suffered from inconsistent songwriting.” With so little time between releases, is it realistic to expect big improvement on Spiritual Relics? Steel Druhm is here to prep your expectations accordingly.
“Windhand is like the next door neighbor who walks around his front yard in tidy whities whilst swigging from a can of Rheingold ®. You want to like him, but he makes it really tough. As purveyors of super fuzzed-out, monolithic stoner doom, they’re often mentioned in the same breath as Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats; likely due to the groovy, 60s/70s style vocals they utilize. However, where Uncle Acid writes relatively short, hooky doom-rock anthems, Windhand opts for huge, laboriously slow, long-winded odes to mammoth distortion similar to Electric Wizard and Dopesmoker-era Sleep.” Windhand, the cult heroes of ginormous stoner doom/drone are back to oppress the masses with the power of THE RIFF! Will Steel Druhm be oppressed? He’s always so damn anti-authority, so who knows?
