Slog are a death/doom metal band from the US and this is their second album.
Divination contains 46 minutes of the foulest death/doom. Minor elements of funeral doom and black metal can be heard within the band’s eerie onslaught, all delivered within a doom-drenched death metal framework that drips with uneasy atmosphere.
As the band name suggests, Slog’s music is largely slow and completely ugly. It delves deep into pools of despair and woeful darkness, and crushes with weighty riffs and ponderous drums. The pace does vary though, and the band do branch out into a mid-paced grooves that might be akin to a diseased shambling horror, but are undeniably effective nonetheless. When blast beats are deployed they’re grim and nasty affairs that leave serrated scars.
Filled with bleak and macabre atmosphere, the songs unfold with doom-laden weight and malignant soul-swallowing growls. The songs are well-written and craft their gruesome moods to great effect. The balance between brutal death metal-driven aggression and immersive doom atmosphere is well-judged, and Divination offers both in the right amounts. And of course, they’re not mutually exclusive either, as Divination is nothing if not brimming with atmospheric impact.
These hymns to hopelessness are infectious in their insidious nature and draw the listener back repeatedly, despite how menacing and sinister they are. Probably because of this. Slog know how to create malevolent, despondent death/doom that works really well.
Divination is a satisfying and effective album. In spawning their death metal with plenty of streaks of malefic doom, Slog have produced a monster of mood-dense death metal that’s a very rewarding and immersive listen.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 