“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.
Post-Doom
King Woman – Celestial Blues Review
“King Woman hit the metal world in 2017 with debut album Created In the Image of Suffering to relatively high praise, both from metal sites and the Pitchfork/NPR corners of metal coverage. At the time I even saw it on a few of the more mainstream metal site year end lists. Personally, I found it…pretty OK. You all know me to be a shill for sludgy doom who doesn’t mind the stoner/psych side of things, and that was squarely what Created In the Image of Suffering was, albeit with a slightly more indie enchantress spin thanks to principle member Kristina Esfandiari. While the Iranian born, California raised Esfandiari certainly has a distinctly captivating voice, I found the first King Woman album solid, but falling short of the hype.” Hype and high potential.
Ba’al – Ellipsism Review
“Post-black and blackened post metal. The same thing, surely? I would argue no. Post-black metal tends to rely on lengthy, brooding atmospheric passages, interspersed with blasts of black metal fury. Blackened post metal, on the other hand, should be towering, mesmerizing riffs with that vicious black metal edge to proceedings. Sheffield, UK’s Ba’al have been knocking around since 2016, putting out EPs in their first year and then in 2019 also, but the absolute shitshow that is 2020 sees this four piece dropping their debut full-length, Ellipsism.” Post-Post.
Daxma – Ruins upon Ruins [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]
“I felt a certain pressure when choosing something, particularly my first thing, to write up as a TYMHM. When I write reviews, ok, I choose them from the promo pit but I’m choosing from the limited pickings left for me by the faster, more nimble AMG scribes. When picking a TYMHM, it’s all on me to pick from the shit ton of music not covered on this most veritable of blogs. So, it may perhaps strike some of you as odd that I have chosen to cover an endearingly small album with only 2 tracks and clocking in at just over 25 minutes.” Everything’s ruined.
BIG|BRAVE – A Gaze Among Them Review
“I slink out of the Double R Diner booth I’m seated in and saunter over to where Audrey Horne is swaying in the center of the restaurant. Eyes closed, head back, fingers loosely splayed out, I join her in an unhurried groovy dance and lose myself to the music. I watch as a wash of color on the back of my eyelids slowly morphs with the ebb and flow of the music. The soundtrack to our dance, however, is strangely not Angelo Badalamenti’s jazz instrumental but “Muted Shifting of Space,” the hypnotic opening track on BIG|BRAVE’s new fourth full-length album A Gaze Among Them.” Stranger, louder things.
Vanishing Kids – Heavy Dreamer Review
“In the high pressure game of Promo Sump Bingo, sometimes you win big. Vanishing Kids, an act wholly unknown to me, lists themselves as “somnambulic doom,” and that sounded interesting enough to snatch from the murky waters and scurry away with to my Ape Cave of Solitude. The thing is, they’re not really doom at all. In fact, they’re one of those rare bands that openly defies easy classification.” Don’t think, just listen.
Amarok – Devoured Review
“Today’s Angry Metal Offering is not only more doom, it’s more doom. California’s Amarok give zero fucks for your patience or your pitiful attention span, and they take over an hour to inform you of this on their debut full-length – Devoured.” Make time for crushing.
The Von Deer Skulls – The Rest Is Silence Review
“To state the obvious, it’s my allotted task to listen to music and quantify it as best I can so that your delicate, little shell-like ears can filter out the good, the bad and the downright ugly. Ironically, The Von Deer Skulls run the gamut of all three. When faced with a band billed as progressive post-doom, how on earth could my pretentious urges refuse?” Smell the skull!