Slow – V – Oceans (Review)

Slow is a solo funeral doom band from Belgium and this is his fifth album.

From the man involved with bands such as We All Die (Laughing), COAG, Merda Mundi, Cult of Erinyes, and many others, this is 57 minutes of atmospheric funeral doom that’s come to drag you down into a bleak, watery abyss.

As you have probably gathered from the name, this is slooooow. Which is exactly the way we like our doom, especially doom of this nature. This is a highly atmospheric and engaging strain of funeral doom, full of emotive intensity and rich texture.

The paying time is spread out over five monolithic tracks, and although each song is of a similar style and theme, the album has more than enough diversity within this framework to hold the attention of the listener with ease.

The songs are physically and emotionally crushing, with a heaviness that comes from both the distortion of the guitars and the strength of the feelings that the music evokes. Funeral doom this may be, but it’s not a one dimensional version of it. There’s real depth and substance here, a seemingly bottomless amount of it. The music is rich, layered, and full of texture. There’s also a firm majestic streak to these songs, with moments of supreme grandeur and stunning epic immensity. These songs perfectly exemplify what’s so good about this kind of drawn-out funeral doom.

There are moments of calm respite strewn around this bleak, desolate landscape, however. Light and shade definitely have a part to play in Slow’s world, and the artist behind this work of art knows his palette well. These aspects of the music simply add to the overall quality of the work, drawing the listener in even further into the music’s dark embrace.

Did I mention the cavernous deathgrowls yet? No? Well, they’re quite a thing of brutal beauty, and deep enough to swallow you whole.

Proceeding at a torturous pace, but filled to the brim with emotive and affecting atmosphere, V – Oceans may drag you down into its murky, endless depths, but you’ll end up being more than acquiescent to this.

An incredibly impressive album.

NOTE: There’s also a version of the album which is just one long track, and I highly recommend this version too, as it flows and gels together effortlessly.