Diaries of Doom

As the second single release for Cold Chamber, Dying in Sunshine alludes to an album that makes for a rather dark, almost physical, experience. The first time I listened to the song I thought that it may have started playing from a few seconds in. With no warning, Cicadastone jumped straight into it with sinister riffs and sad vocal harmonies, taking me on a 4:26 trip that made me feel like I somehow ended up in a grungy underground bar back in the 90s.   Reminiscent of Alice in Chains in both the chorus vocal harmonies and the mixing of heavy eclectic guitar with a more jangly acoustic track, Cicadastone pays homage to the genre. But they do so whilst maintaining their own unique sound, which is no easy feat.  Not much “happens'' throughout the song, and by that I mean, there isn’t really a build-up of any sort. There are no lengthy solos or changes in pace. It just kind of cruises at the same drony tempo from start to finish - yet another way in which the song reminds me of A

Look... If this band's artwork of a woman’s psychedelic asshole doesn’t make you want to listen to this record, then I’m not sure I’m going to be able to convince you, but I’m sure going to try! LAS HISTORIAS are here with their brand new self titled release to bend our minds with their trippy, heavy, doom laden tracks. The Argentinian trio have teamed up with stoner rock/doom label Electric Valley Records for the release of this 5 track EP which comes out digitally and on LP on July 24th.   Taking inspiration from guitar heroes such as Jimi Hendrix, mixing it with the bluesy psychedelia of the 60’s and adding riffs influenced by the classic doomers such as Sabbath and Electric Wizard, this band has created their own celestial playground in which we are all welcome to join. I can imagine this is an album that very likely emerged from a gloomy jam, the start of some mid-paced thunder that became more elaborate as it matured naturally. “Lord of Poisons” an instrumental opener that se

Sometimes great songs are understated in their greatness, and you’ll need to listen to them several times to really appreciate them. Other times, a great song slaps you square in the face with how great it is until you sit up and take notice. A Million Arms, the new single by Nashville Blues Rockers, The Bloody Nerve, does the latter and does it in a big way.  Right from the off, it’s apparent that singer Laurie Ann Layne has got one hell of a voice. I haven’t heard a scream so piercing since some lad from West Bromwich called Robert penned a ditty about immigration problems in Britain circa 800AD (I wonder what happened to him…?), which only serves as a promise that some filthy blues rock is about to follow. This song sure does follow up on that promise. Stomping guitar riffs with a sumptuous scratchy-yet-powerful tone pay homage to the White Stripes and the band that the lad named Robert who I was talking about before was in (can’t remember their name…), but the country-infused licks

The Sail boys are back in all their atmospheric glory to take us away in search for new lands with their brand new single, “Mannequin.” The Southwest band are a colourful mix of Sludge metal/ Psych/ Prog and now with this release I can even add Synth-pop into the mix. They certainly aren’t playing by any rules these days; which is a brave path to take, one that I certainly think is worthy of praise. Sail have always been known to give the listener toe tapping beats, catchy hooks and huge riffs along with sprinkles of atmospheric synth sounds. They’ve not only presented us one version of this single. Oh no, that would be far too simple! The band has graced us with 3 versions of Mannequin: a 4 minute 44 second version, a directors cut extended to 7 minutes 8 seconds and a Synth Wave remix which sounds like it fell right out of the 80s and in my opinion should be used on the newest series of Stranger Things. Focusing on the original version of “Mannequin”, straight away I can see they’re

Noise terror trio Catafalque are here to disturb you. Their oscillations are fear. Following on from 2020 album Corpses , which saw four original tracks from the troupe and an collection of remixes of the same tracks, it might be easy to suggest that they’re starting to scrape the bottom of the HARSH NOISE DRONE DOOM METAL barrel. Fortunately, with We Will Always Suffer,  they’re exploring new avenues of sonic torture, and the album is all the better for it.   Catafalque are able to cohesively weave through multiple avenues of electronic music creation. Opening track ‘Enjoy the Violence’ stacks reverberant bells against feedback-laden, metal scraping noise, whilst ‘You Are the Only One Here’ presents itself as a total inversion of what a psychedelic doom track might achieve. In place of swirling guitars that get tripped out in delay and reverb, the track has a lo-fi drum recording washed into a tower of noise and feedback, with harrowing shrieks for vocals. ‘Spectral’, a particular sta

Vaevictis is the brainchild of Josh Cureton, a talented multi-instrumentalist from Birmingham. He is an experienced musician, well known in the Birmingham metal scene for his hard hitting in Christgrinder and Womenowar. This solo project combines various styles of rock and metal with no holds barred, featuring many talented guest musicians and detailed compositions.   Vaevictis’ upcoming EP “A Means To The End” comes out on July 3rd 2020. All instruments are performed by Josh himself, with guest vocals from Jack Traveller (also of Christgrinder). Recorded at Josh’s Birmingham studio, it has been mixed by Phil Whitehouse and mastered by Matt Jones. The second single from the upcoming EP is the commanding ‘The March To Salvation’. What a march it is. Straight away, heavy distorted guitars surround you and pull you in. The punchy main riff arrives and you can’t help but nod your head in time with it. A mix of clean and heavy fry vocals come into play, giving light and shade to the song an

The Asteroid No. 4 are an American Psychedelic rock band based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Starting off together in Philadelphia in the 90s, the band headed to the West Coast in 2011 where they became an integral part of the underground psychedelic scene. Taking influences from bands such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd and The Byrds, the A4 created their own significant Psychedelic sound throughout their career. Having already created 9 Albums together, there is still no slowing them down and the 10th Asteroid no. 4 Album “Northern Songs” is Available July 2020 from Little Cloud Records & Cardinal Fuzz Records.  Northern Songs features 10 songs for their 10th album, which was recorded by the band in their Northern California Studio. Two singles released from the album are “Northern Song” and “The After Glow”. Today we focus on The After Glow.  They start us off in an ethereal world. A sense of easy going, carefree playfulness mixes with guitars and keys drifting over a steady beat,

As 2020 barrels forth as the year that the entire world shat the bed, you’d expect that the music released throughout might be somewhat reflective of said shattery. If you, dear reader, having been stuck at home for the last two months are beginning to feel somewhat remorseful at just about everything, then Vile Creature have the album for you. Glory! Glory! Apathy Took Helm! is 36 minutes of cathartic lamentation that the world sorely needs, and is proof amongst many that misery can be the spark for something beautiful.   Opeining track ‘Harbinger of Nothing’ wastes no time at all, foreshadowing what will become the highlight of the record as a whole; antagonistic, creatively harmonic sludge riffs contrasted with a densely layered doomgaze section. ‘When the Path is Unclear’ opens with an agonising riff that gives way to unrelenting sludge heaviness of the highest calibre only when it is good and ready. I’m not sure I understand of the spoken “you’ve reached the conclusion A side…” at

Any artist proclaiming themselves as ‘HARSH NOISE DRONE DOOM METAL’ is bound to cause eyes to roll and heads to turn in equal measure; a true musical Marmite. Heavily littered throughout each of the genres listed in Catafalque’s self-descriptor are acts that manage to churn out song after song of uninspired tunes without any real identity save for defining themselves against the sounds of other acts. Not so with Catafalque. Hearts and inspirations on their sleeves? Definitely. But the bleak hopelessness conjured by Dolby, Ozers, and Shepard unmistakably charts them amongst the brightest (or in this case, bleakest) in their constellation.  ‘Sepulcre’, the first single released in anticipation of new album We Will Always Suffer (26th June 2020) continues the Catafalque tradition of lamenting drones and towering textures. Anchoring the ear on this tune however, as opposed to previous solo machinations, is a repeating drum beat that lies somewhere between heavy hip hop and industrial in it

I’ve honestly not heard anybody talk about Brexit in what feels like forever and a day. If I’m being completely honest, I actually miss it to a degree, given what replaced it in all media coverage was a sudden launch into the thunderdome of Coronavirus fear and visits to Dominic Cummings’ mum… Brexit still bubbles under the surface, though, Birmingham post-rockers Solars are staring right down the trunk of the elephant in the room with their latest instrumental single, Brexriff. Starting with tense, muted guitar and sinister synth lines mimic the ominous beginnings of a debate that would slowly absorb the whole country, which the track does as it begins to build texturally and rhythmically, before exploding into a cacophony of harmonised guitars and piledriving drums. The brief but calming ending is also reminiscent of how long we had to process the aftermath of the act finally being forced through before being thrown into the next succession of end-of-the-world scenarios.

Nu metal has seen a real resurgence in the last few years after seemingly being out for the count a decade ago. Is it really twenty or so years since the likes of Iowa, The Sickness, Infest, Chocolate Starfish, Issues, Significant Other, Toxicity and Slipknot came out and were on everyone's playlists mixtapes? In its newer, updated form, modern nu metal bands (new nu metal?) are keeping it current by adding in metalcore or djent influences that didn't really exist back in the 90s, putting one foot of this new wave of bands firmly in the present, but with the nostalgic feel that will appeal to a wider and older audience. I do think that this style and sound could be one of the big things about mainstream metal in the 2020s. VantaBlack are one of these new bands. So new, in fact, that there's barely anything on social media from them from before lockdown began. The Nottingham four-piece say that they 'take influences from the likes of Korn, Static-X, Limp Bizkit, Papa

Something about a witty comment to do with lockdown. It's been over two months now, yet the days still roll into one? I really could do with a job. Fortunately, I get to write about amazing artists and put it as 'work' in my social media bios. May's been another good month for new music. Surprisingly for a blog with 'doom' in its title, two of these are some of the most feel-good albums I've heard in a while. Maybe we should rebrand. Desert Storm - Omens (sludge/progressive metal) - APF Records I'd been looking forward to Desert Storm's fifth full length for a while. There had been a real run of form for the Storm coming into Omens , with every new release just getting better and better. Their live shows with the likes of Raging Speedhorn, CoC and Boss Keloid had really gone down a storm (alright, I'll stop with the storm-related jokes now, sorry) and then each single that they brought out before Omens finally dropped brought up more an