Diaries of Doom

I was there the night Slump was born - some people (me) would even say that the band was my idea… May 2018, Munich: vocalist/guitarist Matt Noble and I had just been to Sleep (the band, not the act) and were continuing to drink in the bedroom of his tiny student flat, near the top of a Brutalist tower block. Matt drunkenly confided in me that he was struggling with not being in a regular band - my answer? “Mate, *chugs beer* start your own band” Matt did just that. Now a mainstay on the underground Stoner/Doom/Sludge circuit, it’s been a long time coming to hear new music from the band - 2020’s singles Nothing More and Degenerate seem a very long time ago now, even though the tracks still hold water and bang heads to this day. New music has been due for a long time, but you’ll have to wait a little longer for my opinion on these two new tracks, because Slump aren’t the only band with a track on this split EP… Worcester-based Sludge-mongers At War With The Sun kick things off in s...

Konvent return with their second full-length offering this week, via Napalm Records. A dismal, downtrodden and destitute collection of material, the quartet draw from sludge, black metal, death metal and doom to create a cold, thick smog of heaviness, maintaining its intensity from the first minute to the last. It's another great effort from the Danish dames; not for the faint of heart, but incredibly rewarding for those that can stomach such an aural assault. Opening with a tolling bell, Rikke's first guttural roar in 'Into The Distance' lets you know without question that Konvent are back and with a vengeance. The pounding drums in the background build up tension, sending chills down your spine and creating a true feel of an epic album opener before it drops with a slight drop in tempo that's supremely effective and punishing. The song is mostly quite slow and foreboding, but Konvent cleverly switch up the tempo again towards the end - this time, making for a fast...

  Esoteric Ascendance is the debut EP from Grimorte, a two-piece death doom project from Kieran Scott (Ashen Crown) and Lewis Borthwick (Archierophant). Releasing on October 31st 2020, it is a relatively short for a project of this nature, though the EP packs in as much dreadful atmosphere as any funeral doom may hope to achieve over the space of an hour.  Each of the four tracks on this EP features darkly compelling song writing. Opening track The Procession lumbers forward tentatively, accompanied with a sample of Aleister Crowley's poem The Pentagram, before Scotts's vocals bring the piece into a resplendent cacophony of doom ladened death metal. Sequestrate opens with more imminent darkness, with a chorus that leans towards atmospheric black metal. The glory of Scott's "I ascend!" is almost without parallel. Title track Esoteric Ascendance winds melodic guitar harmonies between Scott's gutturals and screams, climaxing into yet more black metal goodness. Th...