This
is the debut (!!! ) album of New Zealand 4 piece Sludge/Doom band SHALLOW GRAVE
(release date Feb. 4th 2013). It consists of 6 songs and has a total
playing time of somewhat more than 55 minutes.
The
band’s take on the genre goes slightly into an ambient, post metal direction.
Slightly – that means in addition to getting crushed by relentless heavy sludge
riffs, a creepy spine-chilling horror will claw at your poor soul.
The
opener “Devil’s Harvest” introduces the album very well, and gives a good
impression of what to expect. The last song “City of the Dead” is with a length
of 15:37 minutes the longest on the album and definitely one of the highlights.
My favorite is “To Unfathomable Depth” with a slow and heavy start, a lot of distortion
and a killer riff, but all six songs are practically qualified for being a
favorite.
Perfectly
written and arranged, all songs develop an excellent dramatic zip of their own.
There’s a haunting eerie undertone throughout. While the few quiet but brooding
and menacing passages invoke the evil, haunting hypnotizing pounding rhythms
lead you inexorably into destruction. The heavy sludge riffs and the vocals, that
somehow sound like from beyond of everything, tear you into pieces.
Images
of tortured souls, chaos, despair and hell itself like paintings from
Hieronymous Bosch conquer your mind.
This
is an entirely impressing debut album with an already distinctive style of
killing heavy Sludge. I definitely recommend you check it out.
words by Ulla Roschat
words by Ulla Roschat
No comments:
Post a Comment