Gloam are a US black metal band and this is their latest EP.

This is black metal that’s played with grim grandeur and some touches of doom. This is dark and majestic music, using melody well to create atmosphere and evoke images of harsh vistas and gloomy landscapes.

The melodic component of these tracks should not be understated, and is integral to Gloam’s sound, but it should be noted that this is not the kind of melody you’d take home to meet your loved ones. This is not shiny, effervescent melodic black metal; this is evil, malevolent, nasty stuff, and the melodies are more likely to drag you down into the dirt with them than they are to uplift you.

Despite this, as noted previously, the music still has a majestic and grand streak. This is an earthy, gruesome, and terrible magnificence, which lends these tracks an unnatural light and ominous sheen. Are Gloam channelling something infernal? It certainly sounds like it.

Essentially creating an atmospheric form of black metal with some elements of doom, Death Is the Beginning may be a mere 19 minutes of music, but it’s a solid and imposing slab of cruel blackness that demonstrates what Gloam are capable of in no uncertain terms.

So turn out the lights, turn up the volume, and get ready for Gloam to pull you into their world.