Short and to the point 7

By Aaron Sullivan. As people who know me know, Death Metal is one of the genres I just can never really get into with the exception of a few bands and albums here and there. But, add some DOOM and you’ll get my attention. Hands of Thieves album Feasting on Dark Intentions does just that and it got my attention.

By Aaron Sullivan.

Artwork by Jason Graham

As people who know me know, Death Metal is one of the genres I just can never really get into with the exception of a few bands and albums here and there. But, add some DOOM and you’ll get my attention. Hands of Thieves' album Feasting on Dark Intentions does just that and it got my attention.

Chunky riffage and a grittiness are big part of their sound. Vocals are mix of gurgling screeches and deep growls. The atmosphere is dark and primitive sounding, and there is a huge low end to their riffage. At times elements of Black Metal creep in as well. With only four songs they do so much and show a ton of promise.

Originally released by Transylvanian Tapes on cassette Feasting on Dark Intentions is now being released by Baneful Genesis on limited vinyl, so make sure and get you one!

The great thing about year end lists is finding the stuff you missed especially in genres you're not that familiar with. Deathrock is for sure of those genres. Thanks to Cvlt Nation's top ten list I found out about one such band right in my backyard. Los Angeles's own The Wraith and there EP Shadow Flag.

With the opening of "Comatic Romance" I was hooked. The driving bass line. The hoarse pucky vocals and gothy guitar sound. Reminded me of "The Hunt" from New Model Army (a song made famous to most metal fans by Sepultura). The rest of the EP follows along those same lines. Fans of Killing Joke and Samhain would dig this. While Shadow Flag may borrow heavily from that 80’s deathrock sound it still feels very fresh. Hope to catch these guys live soon.

Artwork by View from the Coffin

From Sacramento California comes Vrtra and their album My Bones Hold a Stillness. An album that is based in Black Metal with hints of DOOM, Death, and Post-Black Metal to spice things up. All done with such fluidity the transitions are seamless.

The sound is huge! Guitars and Drums right in your face with vocals mixed in the middle. There is an epicness to the three tracks. The songs have weight. Vocals feel as though they are devouring everything in their way. They can shift from these beautiful middle sections to pummeling blast beats of destruction to drive the song home.

You ever hear an album and while you’re not sure what the hell is going on, you also know you can’t stop listening to it? That’s was the case with 夢遊病者’s album 5772. According to google translate 夢遊病者 is Japanese for Sleepwalker. Aptly titled as their music can feel like a mix of beautiful fantasies and a fever dream.

What is their genre you say? Might be easier to tell you what genre they don’t play. Experimental would be the easiest and bit of an understatement. There are elements of Black Metal, Krautrock, Shoegaze, and Ambient all mixed perfectly. Done in a way that captivates the listener because you're never quite sure where they may go next. Vocals are ghost like. Breathy and low in the mix almost whispered. This is an album done by people that have thrown out the rules and forged their own path. Just a great listen. Even it you don’t find it to be something you want to hear again, I doubt you'll be mad if you hear 5772 at least once. And I’m certain you won’t hear much else like it.

There are those labels that when they announce the release of an album, just based on their track record you know you are going to check it out - and most likely give them your money. Fallen Empire has been a label like that for me for some time, and when they announced the release of Tardigrada’s latest album of Atmospheric Black Metal, Emotionale Ödnis, I was interested.

The album setup is 5 songs with a short instrumental intro before each of them. It’s a formula that works. The intros are soft and light, before the songs kick in with their epic feel and melancholic atmospheres. Vocals are high pitched wails like those found in DSBM. But despite the sadness of the music there is a still a bit of light in each song. Like moonlight shining through dark clouds. Things never get too flashy or technical and Tardigrada are not doing anything unheard of before. But Emotionale Ödnis is a solid album from start to finish, as I have come to expect from Fallen Empire releases.

Unearthly Trance - Stalking the Ghost

By Karen A. Mann. New York’s Unearthly Trance have been crafting earth-crushing sludge with a strange, darkly magical quality since 2000. Over the course of several releases, they’ve moved from a blackened sound to one that’s doomier, more psychedelic and experimental. Their latest Relapse release

By Karen A. Mann.

Cover art by Orion Landau.

New York’s Unearthly Trance have been crafting earth-crushing sludge with a strange, darkly magical quality since 2000. Over the course of several releases, they’ve moved from a blackened sound to one that’s doomier, more psychedelic and experimental. Their latest Relapse release, Stalking the Ghost, sees them at their most expansive and diverse. Through eight songs, they cover a lot of ground, from pounding heavy rock to crushing, murky doom to droning noise, all with occasional clean vocals and guitar cutting through the ominous layers.

The album opens with “Into the Spiral,” a straight-ahead, sludgy rocker that seems pretty cut-and-dried, until the song suddenly slows down, with the vocals shouted in like a call from outer space. That unexpected quality is what makes Unearthly Trance such a compelling listen. Just as you’re riding along with a song and think you know where it’s going, the journey suddenly becomes weirder. Not only are you no longer on the same road, you’re not even in the same universe.

This quality is best embodied by three successive songs in the middle of the album. The first is “Scythe,” which begins crushingly, with majestic, classically doomy guitars, and ominous, shimmering cymbals.

“Famine” is cold and crushing, with singer/guitarist Ryan Lipynsky’s death-rattle vocals rumbling under layers of noise. The song veers into clean, minimalism before swirling into a discordant, repetitive riff. An unexpected soaring solo rises, phoenix-like, out of the murk.

Finally, “Lion Strength” showcases the band’s more psychedelic side with a swirling, trance-like melody and ominous vocals that sound as if they’re being yelled from far away, ominous, before the song floods back in with a wallop.

It should be noted that all three members of Unearthly Trance, along with Tim Bagshaw of Ramesses/Electric Wizard/With the Dead, also comprise Serpentine Path, which veers more toward English horror doom than psychedelic sludge. “The Great Cauldron,” with its plodding, angry riffing, is the song is the song where the connection between both bands can best be heard.

Stalking the Ghost truly goes out on a limb with the final song, “In the Forests Keep,” which begins quietly, reverby clean guitars and a foreboding, extended melody as droning noise wells up behind it. As the noise becoming more insistent, a voice, sounding as if it’s being transmitted from outer space, recites the ominous lyrics before the song fades away. It’s an unexpected, and yet appropriate, finale to the album.

Hymn - Perish

By Matt Hinch. I'm not sure exactly how Perish, the debut full-length from Norway's Hymn made its way to my ears. It was likely something to do with the phrase “two man doom”. There's a magic that often happens under those conditions. OM, for example. Jucifer isn't always doomy but they have it. So do Black Tar Prophet (if you haven't heard of them, check 'em out.)

By Matt Hinch.


I'm not sure exactly how Perish, the debut full-length from Norway's Hymn made its way to my ears. It was likely something to do with the phrase “two man doom”. There's a magic that often happens under those conditions. OM, for example. Jucifer isn't always doomy but they have it. So do Black Tar Prophet (if you haven't heard of them, check 'em out.) I know there's other doom duos out there but they're failing to surface in my mind given the tonal onslaught of “Serpent” inflicting my aging ears at the moment.

As the (almost) centrepiece of the six track LP “Serpent” anchors Perish with a determination and darkness that keeps the album rooted in heaviness. It's mean and evil. As with most the tracks here it never stays in one spot too long, moving through tempos, moods and intensities. It creates space and then collapses it through pounding percussion and mountain shaking guitars.

Photos by Pedro Roque.

“Rise” unfolds over 12 minutes giving it even more time to venture wherever Markus and Ole feel like going. Slow, droning doom, rumbling tank sludge riffs, quick, almost black metal parts, all saturated in volume and epic tone. “Spectre” holds many of these same qualities as well. But it has this simple, martial riff that pulses and hammers at you inducing irresistible banging of the head and stands out at the album's most memorable moment.

As massive as everything is instrumentally, the vocals take care of business in a big way (Yes, that's a Big Business nod.), roaring across continents in the spirit of Jon Davis of Conan. The similarities to Conan don't end there either. Hymn cultivates gargantuan riffs and powerful movements with the ease of their UK brethren. However, Hymn are more dynamic in my opinion. Every song is a journey with its ups and downs, slogs and races wearing you down. Their ability to stitch it all together is confident and unshakeable, deafening and defiant.

Photos by Pedro Roque.

Whether they're slugging out torturous doom, breaking necks with sludge, or injecting adrenaline into the mix to clear cut your consciousness, Hymn do it well. Very well in fact.

Throughout Perish they channel bands like Sleep/OM/High on Fire, the aforementioned Conan, Big Business, hosts of other doom/sludge bands like Black Cobra(!) as well as the mighty Yob. That's not to say they're simply a patchwork of influences. Hymn write their own odes to heaviness and do it with enough dynamics and flow to catapult themselves into the same echelon as the bands they're compared to. Perish curdles and corrodes its way into your mind instantaneously and sets up residence. It's powerful, emotional and exhausting. If you like heavy ass sludge/doom with epic undertones, warmth, and skillful song writing, your prayers have been answered.