Ok, perhaps I have to be honest first. I wanted to take on this challenge because of the fact that this is doom metal. Everybody who has ever read my reviews will probably know that almost blindly admire this genre, one with very few disappointments. This album certainly doesn't belong in the 'disappointments' bin, although I wished opener 'Monolithian' was longer. Perhaps it's meant to be an intro but it surely has the power to be twice as long, reminding me of Yob or Conan by the way.
Morag Tong is a doom metal band from London, England and this debut is completely free to download if you like (don't worry, you also can pay). Besides the opener, there are some tremendously massive songs here, highlighting in the dragging but groovy title track 'Through Clouded Time'. Driving on slow but dynamic drums, monolithic doomed riffs and epic clean vocals or screams, this song is almost a prototype of how this version of stoner doom should be. Yeah, it is.
Halfway through that song I have already forgotten about the shortness of the opener and I'm getting hungry for more. Luckily, there is still 'The Eyes Of Man' another one of those crushing, grinding and drilling guitars and those haunting drums. Fear, anxiety, anger, despair, if those are your musical preferences, you should download the hell out of this. And, band members, come over to the old continent soon, I definitely want to see this live...
Alright, twenty five minutes, not bad but I feel I can do faster than that. Perhaps one day I'll try again but for now, I'm going to play this again and dance naked in the rain outside. Have fun...
Serge