This is the debut album from sludge metal band Stay Dead.
Featuring members of Aiwass and High Desert Queen, Stay Dead play a compelling mix of sludge and doom. Beneath the Weight of Worlds contains five original songs, plus a cover, bringing together 36 minutes of material in total.
Beneath the Weight of Worlds focuses primarily on being a vehicle for atmosphere and emotion, and in this it succeeds. The album has a vulnerable side, but has an underlying aggression with it, which occasionally comes to the fore. The music is heavy, but atmospheric. It’s richly melodic, with a firm emotional foundation that supports a variety of sludge and doom structures. Psychedelic tendencies, mournful melodies, subtle synth textures, layers of impassioned clean singing, and much more, all bring Beneath the Weight of Worlds to life.
Alongside the above, you can hear a traditional doom metal influence, delivered with both the classic emotional depth of Warning and the more modern feel of Pallbearer. There’s a touch of Paradise Lost‘s powerful sorrow in some of the melodies too. Wrap this up with emotive sludge heaviness, and the sort of potent clean singing that you don’t hear very often, and Stay Dead have something substantial to offer fans of feeling-rich doomy heaviness.
Guests from members of Aiwass, Coma Hole, High on Fire, and Mastodon also appear. The most impactful of these is from the singer of Coma Hole; her vocals adorn Chrysalis like a crowning achievement, ending the album on a high point.
Only it’s not the end, unfortunately, and this is where the only misstep occurs, right at the end of the record. The main one is the utterly pointless spoken word interlude What Happened to Rock n’ Roll, which then leads into the good, but throwaway Stillwater cover. Remove these, and you have a lean 31 minutes of very strong music to savour and enjoy from Stay Dead.
Regardless of this, Beneath the Weight of Worlds remains an impactful debut. Across the first five songs, Stay Dead have crafted an impressive collection of tracks. Instantly impressive, yet with the depth and substance to reward repeat spins, Beneath the Weight of Worlds is a offers a hugely enjoyable and immersive experience.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 