Talbot are a stoner/doom band from Estonia, and this is their third album.
Talbot are a band that are playing their own brand of stoner/doom metal. Mixing the complimentary parts of stoner, doom, psychedelic, sludge, and post-metal together into an enjoyable 42-minute trip, this is an album to sit back and sink into. Continue reading
Bismarck are a doom metal band from Norway and this is their debut album.
Here we have 35 minutes of doom metal that incorporates quite a few different sub-styles into its melting pot. Drawing on influences from stoner, doom, drone, progressive, sludge, psychedelic, and post-metal, Urkraft is a well-rounded and satisfying slab of heaviness. Continue reading
This is the debut EP from Canadian doom band Empress.
Although classed as an EP, there’s still 29 minutes of material here to sink your teeth into.
I’ll say it straight away – Reminiscence is a massively enjoyable release. Continue reading
This is the latest EP from US doom band Enhailer.
Containing just one 18-minute track this EP straddles genres and styles, but ultimately falls under the doom heading most of all. Continue reading
Sorxe are a post-metal/sludge/doom band from the US and this is their second album.
Well, I’ve been hungry for this. 2014’s Surrounded by Shadows is one of my favourite sludge/doom releases, making it high up on my end of year best of list for 2014. Over the years my appreciation for this superlative album has only grown, so has my desire to hear its follow up. Continue reading
Blut Aus Nord are a black metal band, (among other things), from France. This is their twelfth album.
Blut Aus Nord are a well-known band with a well-known proclivity for experimentation and producing music that’s as unexpected/unpredictable as it is rich, dark, and textured. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Tchornobog, a black/death/doom metal one-man project from the US.
Although this is ostensibly a solo project, (from the man that brought us the mighty Aureole), it also features several session musicians and guests, (most notably from Esoteric and Svartidauði), which help to flesh out the release. Continue reading
Herem are a sludge metal band from Finland. This is their third album.
Ahh, heavy, sludgy doom. Always a pleasure to make your acquaintance.
Deep deathgrowls are backed up by serrated screams; both are very ably performed and both get the job done nicely. The singer’s voice Continue reading
Organ are an Italian Doom band. This is their début album.
Organ play a merging of Doom, Sludge and Psychedelic Metal.
A colossal, crushing sound heralds Tetro’s beginning, and this is a theme which is developed throughout. They’re not without their introspective moments, but the overall emphasis is on heavy atmospheres.
Speaking of atmosphere, Organ have it in buckets. Or rather, waves, as the onslaught of heaviness seems to internally generate its own ecosystem which bleeds out of the speakers like controlled tsunamis of density.
Relentless, repetitive rhythms drive the music forward, while dark vocals seem to lurk just beneath the surface. Harsh screams and cleaner vocals both have a place on this record, although the singer’s voice is used like an additional instrument to merely enhance the power and focus of the main musical maelstrom.
A roiling, churning beast of an album. It’s relatively short for this kind of release at ‘just’ over half an hour in length, but it packs a lot of punches into that time and Tetro is a very worthwhile listen for anyone into layered, atmospheric Doom.
For fans of Om, Electric Wizard, Sleep, Yob, In the Company of Serpents, Ufomammut, Generation of Vipers, etc.
Minsk are a Post-Metal band from the US and this is their fourth album.
I’m a big fan of Minsk’s 2009 album, With Echoes in the Movement of Stone, so have been eager to hear this latest release of theirs.
Coming from a Post-Metal view that takes in the stunning panoramas of Isis, Neurosis and Cult of Luna, Minsk were never as well-known as their contemporaries but still managed to hugely impress those lucky enough to hear them.
They have now roused themselves from their six year slumber and produced a hefty piece of work in The Crash & The Draw – 11 tracks, 75 minutes of music.
Well, there’s a lot going on here. Minsk certainly don’t lack for either ambition or talent. This is an album of moods and atmospheres. In the best Post-Metal tradition they know how to build you up and then knock you down.
Psychedelic, Progressive and heavily percussive elements work alongside the crushing guitars and expansive sense of space that the band create.
Emotionally these tracks take in pretty much everything, from the beautiful to the nightmarish, sometimes even in the same song.
The songs are varied, multi-textured and rich with evocative and emotive soundscapes. There’s a lot of depth and nuance to these compositions and it takes a good few spins to fully grasp what’s going on here in some instances.
Much like Nero Di Marte‘s latest work, The Crash & The Draw seems to build upon itself with each listen until the music acts like waves, reinforcing itself so that eventually it just drowns everything else out and you truly begin to wonder how you ever thought there was anything else.
This is truly an album of wonders and otherworldly journeys.
What’s stopping you from listening to this right now?
