sludge / doom

What would The Doors be without Ray Manzarek on the keys? A good band, maybe even very good, but who can imagine “Light my Fire” without Manzarek’s amazing intro? No one, right? Now, not to compare Walk Through Fire to The Doors – wouldn’t do either band justice – but their sound is heavily characterized by the use of keys, in this case, the use of an organ.

Walk Through Fire have just released their third full-length “Var Avrgund” (“Before the Abyss”), the first in their mother tongue Swedish, which is a change that might not be audible because of the deep growls and bellows. The vocals are merely a strong element within the whole soundscape of the quintet from Gotenburg. The unique-selling-point, that marketing strategists would be searching for, is the band’s sound. It is rough and, unlike many other Scandinavian doom-inspired bands, not really polished but gritty and always a little dirty. However, their sound is really outstandingly singular and is accompanied by a near-perfection feeling for songwriting.

If we take off the intro (“Avgrund”) and it near 150 seconds, then we have six songs in over 73 minutes – an average of more than 12 minutes per song! However, the song lengths should not wrongfully lead to the conclusion that WTF (if the acronym is an accident? Who knows!) are a funeral doom band is wrong. Even though they share a similar liking for songs over ten minutes – the longest one is nearly 20 minutes long – there is one major difference to the usual funeral doom bands: Walk Through Fire are more drone-inspired than bands like Bell Witch. In that sense they are similar to Mizmor, although they don’t use blastbeats and black metal screams. The use of hard-hit cymbals and droney, gritty guitar motifs are able to prolong the final track “Tragedin” to its final maximum length, and yet they are only a part of this opus magnum, for sometimes you will not hear anything really on the track as the band is able to hold pauses and to give even the pauses enough space to breathe, so that here one might come back to what makes a lot of modern metal so interesting: It’s not the riffs or the speedy notes and chords, it’s rather those moments when nothing is happening – either because of a drone or because of silence.  And admittedly Walk Through Fire are masters at keeping the silences meaningful. 

The Doors had a master craftsman behind the keys creating the psychedelic moments that make them stand out, Walk Through Fire have a master using the keys to keep the soundscape singular and breathing.


Thorsten

post metal / sludge / doom

What’s that you say? Don’t go outside! panic buying! No toilet roll! Human sacrifice, cats and dogs, living together, mass hysteria. All you need to do is look around to realise these are no ordinary times we are living in at present. So, if you need some musical accompaniment in what seems like the end of days then I have the perfect album for you.  The new album from Colchester Post-Metallers Telepathy.

The band initially made waves in the British metal scene with their debut album 12 areas. A heady mix of stylized post metal with sections of aural freak outs which injected something new into the post-metal scene. This trend continued with their next album Tempest which catapulted them onto many people’s consciousness with a refined sound. So, what can we expect with the new album? Let’s find out.

The key to a good instrumental album is articulating what you are trying to get across without the use of lyrics. Some bands do this better than others, and it’s here where Telepathy have excelled. The sense of anguish is palpable throughout this album and there are times when it builds to almost unbearable levels, but the band seem to be aware of this and just when it gets to all-encompassing heights, they turn on the release valve to give you a breather. The first half of this album will be familiar to anyone who has heard their previous album Tempest as it follows quite similar sonic patterns. The sense of familiarity however is tempered by a newfound sense of purpose, everything honed to a precise edge. Not a single note is out of place and the cohesive nature of the album shines through.

If the first half of the album is great, the second half is simply stunning. It’s here where the band seem to take flight and truly explore their range and seek out new sonic palettes to try and get their point across. The main riff leading into the euphoric ending on Aonaran is incredible, and the sense of release I mentioned earlier should be experienced by everyone, even if they have only a passing interest in post metal music. The use of vocals in next song ‘Sorrow Surrenders it’s Crown’ are a most welcome addition, with some gorgeous delicate guitar parts backing them up. This song transitions beautifully into the bewitching title track which has guest cello by none other than Jo Quail.
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If Telepathy’s previous album Tempest was good (and it was more than that) this album takes their music to a whole other level. If they can continue this upwards trajectory, the sky is the limit for this band and if they carry on with their exploration which is found in the second half of this album, they truly are capable of making extraordinary music. This is highly recommended and will probably be high up on my personal albums of the year list.


Simon

progressive / sludge /  doom / metal

Ravenna might turn out to be this year’s capital for everything metal. January saw the release of Nero DiMarte’s angry post-metal record, February witnessed the release of Postvorta’s opus magnum “Porrima” and in March, Void of Sleep show their third full-length “Metaphora” to the world. Interesting is that members of Nero DiMarte and Postvorta also play in Void of Sleep and in some ways there can be parallels in the sound. 

Void of Sleep perform a kind of very proggy post-metal or sludge with twisting time signatures here and there with short breaks and “stop and go”-moments which really takes you on a journey. The most impressive here is certainly the rhythm section because without a tight performance by Andrea (bass, Nero DiMarte) and Allo (drums) this whole thing would fall apart. Nevertheless, that shall not imply that the guitar work by Gale and Burdo (also responsible for vocals) is not worth mentioning, because very often they show an amazing feeling for timing and interweave their sometimes doomy, sometimes sludgey riffs with a soothing solo or some acoustic passages to purvey the songs room to breathe. The only thing that might not be to everybody’s taste might be the vocals as they often delve into the realm of prog-metal (not the cheesy end, but the clean style).

When listening to Void of Sleep you can fall into songs that transport you either to the highest satellites or the deepest ravines, which shows how open the musical horizon is. The author of these lines saw a group of people trying to run up some steep Appenine hill slipping on the rocky parts and yet determined to reach the top as a group not as individuals, helping each other out if one of them stumbled and fell. However, at the supposed “top” of the hill they have to realize that they are not even close to the summit but only mastered a few peak behind which a whole “universe” of mountains of even greater heights hid. Determined to keep their bond and friendship intact, they start ascending the next one.

One might wonder about the structure of the mountains close to Ravenna, the momentary capital for thinking man’s metal. 


Thorsten

doom

Berlin’s Pyre of Descent is a good example that sometimes a band has to wait for the right moment to arrive. In existence for ten years, the one-man-project needed eight years to really publish anything (at least on Bandcamp) and that can be a good or a bad sign. With this melodic doom metal act from Germany’s capital it’s somewhere in the middle. One might argue that it needed so much time to really find the right sound, another might say that it shows a lack of concentration. 

When listening to this four-track mini-album one can say the same, if you wait long enough – especially for the last two tracks – you can hear some beautiful moments, where everything falls nicely into place, the gloomy arpeggios and the crawling drums that all in all then form a wonderfully dark, melancholic, doubt-stricken realm in which the only light out doesn’t necessarily come from above, but rather from below. Especially the third track shows the ability to throw not everything into the frying pan of despair but rather to wait for the right moment for each instrument, each vocal and each single element in order to not have one awful concoction of indistinguishable origin but rather a tasty recipe that you want t have over and over again.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the first two songs which are not utter rubbish but which do not pull the listener in like the second half. They show a medicine man performing the same ritual for the umpteenth time so that he himself doesn’t even care anymore (which does not mean that the songwriter didn’t care, he just didn’t develop the songs as well as number three and four). He is dancing around the fire always glancing away from the sparkling embers looking towards the mountains in front of the starlit sky where he will find later meet his true calling. 


Thorsten

doom / post metal

In most of the music world, the subjects about which bands sing, are more often than not, things that have happened to them, or past loves which the song writer deems fit to jot down and share with the world at large. Sometimes, a band comes along and writes about a subject which matters fully to them and to which they are intrinsically linked, just like Cegvera in fact, and their new album The Sixth Glare. You see, the bands virtuoso front man/guitarist/bassist Gerardo Arias is also a Doctor of Biology so when he and drummer Matt Neicho write music about the biological end of the world, you know it comes from a place of deep personal attachment, and it shows.

The name of the album comes from a reference to the environmental crisis which is happening to this planet as we speak (unless you are a world leader, in which case, money comes before the planet, but that’s for another day) and is what scientists call ‘the sixth mass extinction’ If all this sounds a bit bleak, well, it’s supposed to, this is an album which is a wake-up call, a call to arms and it demands you pay attention to it. 

 This whole backstory wouldn’t mean a great deal if the music didn’t back it up, and it’s here that the album really shines, in a very dark and doomy way. The first song Incubation sets the scene with delicate guitar parts over and ambient passage, the calm before the storm if you will. Then first song proper Incubation kick in with a Sabbathian low end crunch, rolling forward like an unstoppable wave. Prodromal (the period between the appearance of initial symptoms and the full development of a rash or fever apparently, see, you learn things on this album) comes next and serves up some more riffs to carry you along further down the rabbit hole, rattling along before letting you breath halfway through with a clean section complete with a sample about infection. 

The whole atmosphere of this album is suffocating in the way it wraps you up, spins you round and pummels you until you come out the other side a wiser person for the experience. The album flows in a way which is intoxicating and it’s this flow which elevates this album into spectacular territory. Occasional rays of gossamer delicate melody punctuate it’s run time, take the dream-like ‘After the Thaw’ for example. The peaks and troughs across the whole length of the album are a constant joy and each note and placement has been thought about.
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 This is an album meant to be listened to in one sitting. It’s not essential you understand the context behind the album, indeed, if you disregard it entirely and just appreciate the music, you can’t help but be swept along for the ride. It does help to get the most out of the listening experience though if you put in a touch of effort, and once you do, you won’t regret it as this album is utterly essential, highly recommended.


Simon

doom / death metal

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Italians are the masters of doom metal. I know, there is decent doom metal being produced pretty much everywhere but somehow Italy constantly manages to produce a massive amount of high quality albums. In fact, there's a sticker on the album saying "Italian Doom Metal", which mostly serves as a quality label.
Furthermore, most of the doom bands from over there don't merely follow the trends. Today, sludge doom and post-metal are incredibly popular niches while melodic doom death is mostly being ignored. Not so in Italy, where yet another masterpiece of melodic doom will spawn on March 20.

Titled 'Empire Of The Void', this third album by Tethra is a blast. From the very beginning of the intro, 'Cosmogenesis', it's clear that we're dealing with a must-have. Drones and twin guitars,  we're descending back into the nineties, so it seems. And yes, then comes 'Cold Blue Nebula', an instant classic for those who adore November's Doom, Paradise Lost, Amorphis, Saturnus, My Dying Bride and so on. Heavy riffing, melodic guitars, tempo changes, harsh grunts, clean vocals,... this song has everything to become a fan favorite.

After that, the 'Gravity' trilogy begins, a massive anthem in three acts. I must say, as impressive as the opening track was, this trilogy is a stunner. I immediately turned up the volume and I immediately felt like I did when I first heard the albums by some of the aforementioned bands. Moonspell comes forward as a reference here, mainly in the clean vocal parts. I also often found myself thinking (and yelling out loud), "Fuck, this is awesome". I rarely use the F-word, so that is a compliment.

But, although I can namedrop a heap of nineties doom metal bands, I think it's important to point out that Tethra is a worthy player in their own right. The album is extremely coherent and extremely captivating. There is plenty of variation, yet still it feels like a concept album. Furthermore, 'Space Oddity' is a baffling cover version of David Bowie's classic. I could never have imagined this song could be even more crushing. I think this was a risk, but a well executed one. Kudos for this emotional tribute.

Another one of my favorites on 'Empire Of The Void' is 'Dying Signal', which nudges towards the black metal scene with intense riffs and a pitch black atmosphere. Back in those days, the heavy nineties, this track would be the one that made me decide to purchase the CD, and with that I'll recommend every melodic doom metal fan to do exactly that. Tethra cannot disappoint you. Their name belongs among those I mentioned earlier and this album belongs in between your all-time favorites. It's as simple as that...


​Serge

doom / stoner rock

Duos without either bass or guitar have been a thing in the music scene for quite some time, some immensely popular like the White Stripes, some less like Two Gallants, yet there seems to be something about the combination of drums with one of those two that is appealing to a lot of musicians. Year of The Cobra from Seattle are no exception to this and they are like the converted image of Jack & Meg, because they are really a married couple on- and offstage, they have a female singer and bassist and a male drummer (who is actually capable of more than just trying to keep a straight rhythm). 

In a perfect world, this duo would be the talk of the town because they served us “Ash & Dust”, a hot dish of doom and stoner melodies last November which forces the author of these lines to stray from his usual idea of not writing about anything older than three months. Amy Tung and Jon Barrysmith definitely have the “it”-factor, because they are highly capable musicians that create such a strong undertow that one cannot but lean back and let the delicious waves of stoner-sanded doom wash over him and bury his head deep within the desert where the hot is scorching yet never killing. The fever starts to set in and the listening experience is becoming more and more intriguing. Eight song each showing a different kind of mood yet never losing the thread that is observable with Amy’s magnetic bass skills that is as mesmerizing as her singing performance somewhere between the naive seductress and the vicious femme fatale. 

The best thing is that they keep their strongest shots for that moment that we all know on certain records – great opening tracks, pretty decent second ones but then with tracks three to five a certain structure becomes obvious. That doesn’t happen on “Ash & Dust”; first of all because the songs are all unique (also because of the varying integrated further instruments, like an organ). Secondly, because the way that the duo places the drums within the sound is extraordinary, sometimes they are leading in the way and even more apparent than Amy’s low-tuned, heavily distorted bass, sometimes the cymbals seem really delicate showing Jon’s ability to not just hit as hard as he can. Finally, the use of the bass is striking and similar to Bell Witch’s way of using the bass similar to a hellish piano. 


​Thorsten

doom / black metal

Turkish metal might not be something quite popular in the metal community but one should always keep an open ear in order to discover some genre gems. Istanbul-based trio Zifir is one of those bands on the verge of being “the” band. 

Musically closer to doom metal than black metal they present a kind of music sharing more similarities with a ritualistic happening than with a furious concert, which becomes evident when listening to the middle of the eleven-song-album with “Gökyüzü Karanlik” using a spoken word sample over an ambient drone, “An Eerie Moment” fulfills its promising title and leaves the audience a moment to draw breath before “Chaos Clouds” once again clarifies what founder, vocalist and guitarist OnurÖnok strives for: A music to befit his anti-religious philosophy - “We deny the existence and commandments of God / Whoever insists on the presence of God / is at once joined by Satan by his side / We soil his paradise”. Nevertheless, one should not think that this is satanist music, no Zifir opposes all kinds of religion including satanism exchanging one god for another entity - “The world is full of people who died for their God / Their faiths couldn’t save them”. Not Christianity is the enemy but believe. 

The album is a good mixture of doomy guitars, often we hear black metal shredding but recorded so lo-fi that is becomes like a swirling blur and the single bits of the riffs fall together creating a whirlwind of crescendos so that is sometimes resembles crescendo-driven riffing characteristic for post-rock. On the contrary the drums are so slow and the rhythms often to hushed up and in the background that it’s like a slowly dancing waltz of death. Nonetheless, there is also the eruption in form of “Ephemeral Idols” which is very straightforward in its arrangement and yet not trashy in its sonic landscape. 

Zifir might not become everybody’s darling for the band is a too “in – between”, not really doom and yet no clear black-metal, not really post-rock but also no ambient ritual. Quite the opposite they don’t want to follow one or two paths to God they are their own highest instance unto themselves – and only for themselves. Joining them is pretty worthwhile.


Thorsten

grunge / stoner rock

Iceland’s scene is very likely one of the strongest worldwide as we are talking about a country with roughly 360,000 inhabitants and yet we all know so many bands from Iceland pushing the brim for modern music further and further. Keelrider is another one of those, although they most likely will not see as much attention as Sigur Ros, Björk or the whole Icelandic black metal scene because they are Stoner Grungers with a twist. In 2018 they published their debut album “North” and last year they published two singles from their upcoming album “Second Wind”. While “Too Far Gone” is in parts a very nice melange of Alice in Chains-vocals and Soundgarden-stoner riffs, “Sun” is much more interesting because the band some a little more variety when it comes to time signatures and giving the guitar lines more space to breathe. If you are into stoner rock and grunge, this band is something right for you! 

post metal

Post-Metal from Italy. Most foreigners automatically associate it with Postvorta but some, a little deeper in and a little longer might remember the name Calendula, the sextet from Parma, which released an EP (2011) and a full-length (2012) a while ago. After some changes concerning line-up and musical direction, they released a 25-minute-song in November which definitely doesn’t fit to the title “De Brevitate Vitae” - it’s not brevis (brief) at all. It is quite a monster with a lot of dynamic changes and oscillates between dynamic driving drums and some really clever, counteracting guitar-work following the long intro, which sometimes hints at a bit of Tool. The vocals are pretty good, they also use some samples to give it a more differentiated sonic outline. Something that can be criticized is the sound as the partially trashy Lo-Fi sound doesn’t really fit a record as ambitious as this one, although on the other side it fits to the proclaimed role models  – 90s post-rock bands such as Slint (noticeable in the very effective guitar motif after the first real break). If the guys follow this path, we might have two Italian associations with the term Post-Metal.

electronic 

Svart Records is one of the finest labels when it comes to hard, harsh music, most people know about that. Most people do not know that they also have an electronic sub-label – Svartronix which again is very open-minded. A few weeks ago they released the debut song by A Heart Beats “Dazes the Mind” which is pop music that fits perfectly in any 80s mix of songs by some tropical house producer. This songs purvey a kind of Caribbean calypso feeling but their sex-appeal derives to a large extent from the intriguing vocals of Paile who once was a member of Beastmilk. His delivery is very nice and especially the chorus is so funky that one automatically feels his feet moving, but the line also has some depth “It dazes the mind / and numbs the tongue”. The beats produced by Tuuki are layered with some space basslines in the sense of some more synth-driven Daft Punk and the beat itself is shuffling a bit, so that the sunny, opening sounds give the song a holiday feeling without the stupidity. A promising debut song, let’s hope A Heart Beats and Svartronix has some more servings.

doom / death metal

Russian death doom act Intaglio released a demo version of a new track at the end of last year and in some way, the beauty lies in the rhythm. Many voices will now scream that the rhythm is nothing particular new to the genre, as the slow, dragging rhythm of the song is really quite normal, but the way that the strings connect to it, support it in certain passages, yeah, even form it from time to time, that is really breathtaking – the Gothic attitude it brings to the song turns it into a remarkable one. The lyrics, speaking about the overwhelming character of a memory of death which overshadows everything else, are delivered in regular death metal style. Another standout feature is the use of the use of an upright bass that is tuned so well, that you can hear each tap and each ring.
In some way, three pretty singular metal genres are amalgamated into one pretty dense net of emotions that will leave no open ear without imprinting a memory of itself on the listener. If this is a first sign of a new album then one might keep Intaglio in mind.

punk

Everything about this 7” screams “Old school! Old school!”, the cover (seemingly a reverse from the classic Minor Threat discography cover that also was adopted by Rancid several years ago), the cover b-side, the black-white style, the sound, everything! But first things first: The revived band released a good album in 2018 and last December followed with this 7” out on Heartworm Press. The title track is a new shotgun blast somewhere between Zeke, MC5, The Clash, Turbonegro and Black Flag (although one must say, that only the vocals sometimes hint at Rollins) – definitely a good track. The b-side is a well-made cover of “Left for Dead” by The Lemonheads another one of these late 80s punk bands that turned more and more to indie-rock. The cover is good and shows a different side to American Nightmare. However, there is one thing that is lacking in this release and that is the teenage angst that made AN famous. The despair, the sadness, the melancholy – not there. On the other hand, that might drive the listener to despair and achieves the same effect.

avant garde / folk

Dog Tunnel Records

There are genres that seemingly are so heavily steeped in tradition and customs that it is hard to imagine to hear a new sound in them. Take Irish Folk for example; most of us at first might associate it with pub nights somewhere between the Dubliners and Christy Moore (at best) or Michael Flatley and Enya (at worst). But to combine the traditional folk instruments bodhran, flute, violin, and guitar with a wall of sound, lots of spoken word (not cheerfully and rhythmically, but rather intimidating and fierceful) is something rarely heard before. Tuatha is a fierce project that will leave some of us open-mouthed. Formed in early 2019 and already a rising star on the scene, the septet uses old Irish tales from the Middle Ages and Gaelic Dindsenchas (short poems describing certain places) to deepen their already impressive style. In parts, their unrelentless approach reminds one of the approach Archive and SubRosa took in totally different musical landscapes. This here is unique, bewitching and typical Irish yet also totally un-Irish. Folks, give Tuatha a listen!

sludge / doom

A quartet from Phoenix, Arizona with a very grainy, heavy sound, Mosara released their debut demo last November. It shall be a prelude to a record which is in the making and should see the light of day before the end of the year; of course the demo should also draw interest from labels and I think it might: The musical soundscape is strongly influenced by a lot of proto-metal like Sabbath, Blue Cheer, but also by classic doom bands like Electric Wizard or Cough – that means, you get what you expect, low-tuned, richly-distorted, grainy, a bit lofi-ish doom sounds with a tinge of sludge influences (most audible on the second track “Clay and Iron”). Sometimes the howls and growls could be a bit fiercer and less despaired because, sometimes, Tony Gallegos (ex-Twingiant) is a bit too clear. Nevertheless the sound is great, as if someone mated Fu Manchu with Sabbath and their offspring was left in the desert with a guitar as the only means of communication. The riffs are dragging, the bass is dominant, the drums are supportive – all good in the Arizona desert. 

death metal / black metal / doom / noise / grindcore

Noise bastard? Yeah. Death metal? Sometimes. Grindcore? For sure. Doomy Gloom? You bet. All of that and more is “Tellurian Insurgency” by Ploughshare. With their third release in as many years (after 2017’s “Literature of Piss” and 2018’s acclaimed “In Offal, Salvation”) the quartet from Australia’s capital Canberra once again proves that the bar is always too low for them. Excellent musicians with a highly complex understanding of how music works they show that extreme metal must also rely on atmosphere that sometimes exists between the chords and blastbeasts. A great deal of the attraction of this band is the vocals, which never sound cheesy but quite on point. This EP also features a remix of their standout song, the title track of “In Offal, Salvation”, which shows that it is even possible to give this dark nightmare of a song an even more desperate twist. One thing that becomes clear throughout the record is how important good drumming is for such a kind of music as it must set the tone for everyone. If the guys can keep up their productivity we should await a new heir to the extreme metal throne in 2020.

industrial

Describing this Oakland, CA, quartet is not that easy and not that difficult at the same time. Their sound relies heavily on synths, samples but also on guitar, bass and drums. They cross constantly between electronic noise (aka industrial) and post-punk’ish avantgarde sounds. Initiated in 2013 and having independently released already a bunch of records, Lament Cityscape set out to publish three EPs in 2020, each following some red thread and yet also standing out on its own. Something that they share with some of the pioneers of this kind of sonic assault (Godflesh, Killing Joke, Author & Punisher) are the harsh sounds that sometimes remind one of buoys warning the oncoming ships of the nearby rocks and sandbanks which here are symbolized by the rough drum attacks. In parts, this is a good record for those who like Godflesh’s Streetcleaner a bit less polished and a bit more straightforward. Partially, one is left behind by a lack of surprise, but fans of industrial noises and harsh synth-driven drums will really like this.

black metal

At first, the band’s name might sound like a nice pun on 80s karate flic “Bloodsport” (with the amazing multiple Academy Award winning actor Jean-Claude van Shakespeare) but when listening to this new face on renown Swedish Meta label Blood Harvest it becomes clear that the idea of a fungi which sits parasitically on its host and feeds of it before finally killing it works perfectly within the black metal community. It also works nicely because the record to it is really good and leaves one’s ears with an immediate wish to press replay because of its clever changes in mood, dynamics and tempi. The record (especially the second track “Cede to the Saprophyte”) is like a nice blend of groove metal and black metal with the emphasis, of course, on the latter. Thematically, the record presents the idea of the fungal mass on this planet slowly but certainly taking over and destroying all other organisms, a new take on the apocalyptic visions presented by bands like Botanist or Arx Atrata. For a band that only came together in 2018, this is really somewhat impressive. 


​Thorsten

blues / doom

There are music genres that hardly go together at first glance because of the stereotypes in one’s head. Blues and grunge are a good example – the mental image of angry young men screaming their hearts and lungs out into the Pacific Northwestern air in the early 90s doesn’t overlap with the (mostly) African American blues player from Chicago who already performs for 40 years or more. At second glance there is a deeper connection than expected as both genres share a “love” for the broken characters, the inner struggles, the anger, the despair of trying to “find a way out of” or “an access to” relationships. Schematically, there are some similarities too, because of the structure of regular grunge songs often following blues blueprints. 

One bigger difference is usually the sound-scape, for the distortion, that makes an integral part of a lot of grunge songs, doesn’t really work well with blues songs. This discrepancy is now bridged by Alberto Piccolo who normally serves as the guitarist for Italian doomy post-metallers Messa whose last regular album “Feast of Water” received lots of appraisal. Under the moniker Little Albert, he will release “Swamp King”, his version of blues which still is two feet deep in Piccolo’s regular doom-mud. Although the structures are clearly bluesy, the tuning, the reverb and the sound of Piccolo’s guitar form the connection to grunge, and we often see Tad, Jerry or Stone lurking around the corner trying to see how the Italian does it. All of this makes for a kind of doom that one does not encounter too often: great guitar motifs like the beginning of “Outside Woman Blues” turn into good rockers; slow building blues bits add up to slo-mo blues which, of course, is very similar to the arrangement of doom songs (just listen to the slightly punkish “Mary Claire”); the reverb of blues solos is elongated then turning into doom, noticeable in “Bridge of Sighs”. 

With a little bit experimentation and the incorporation of some unique instruments (like the unusual saxophone which makes Messa so unique) the next record will be an absolute smasher to get parties going; “Swamp King” is more like the record you put on shortly after 3 or 4 am, when the party is over but there are still the music fanatics who don’t want to go home, who still need to talk, who could use a new fix. And a good fix it is!


Thorsten