2013 is done and over with, and you’ve all seen our many year-end lists by now. However, musical discovery never truly ends with a new calendar, and even a blog with ~20 members on staff can have blind spots. As we find albums in the depths of 2013 we missed out on the first time around, we’ll make good on correcting our oversight. After all, just because an album came out months ago doesn’t mean it isn’t worth talking about anymore!
Not long after I finished my own year-end list, I started catching up on the lists from other metal sites around the net. Along the way, I picked up on the perplexing Salt Lake City based Subrosa, a band that writes epic-length post-metal/sludge jams with stoned out vocal harmonies and sonic experimentations that put the band on a whole other level.
More Constant Than The Gods plods along flirting through everything you could ever hope for out of this corner of the metal world; Larger than life riffs, effect-laden acid rock solos, filthy drones, shifts in dynamic, and an oddly subdued sense of confidence in the fact that nothing is ever off the table. Subrosa are the masters of all-encompassing doom, and yet manage to sound unlike anything else out there.
Fourteen-minute opening track ‘The Usher’ is a brilliant enough introduction to the band in its own right, with noisey synths and exotic violin melodies weaving in and out of crushing riffs and occult female vocals that could have been borrowed from modern doom giants Electric Wizard or up-and-comers Windhand. There’s something more to Subrosa though, with an air of experimentation and avant-garde weirdness that no mere Sabbath worship could ever touch on its own.
Originally released in September via Profound Lore Records, if I heard this record in time, Subrosa could have easily made it onto my top 20 — quite possibly even overthrowing Cult of Luna‘s spot. Of course, More Constant Than The Gods and Vertikal fill very different needs, but as forward-thinking atmospheric doom bands pushing massively ambitious albums past the hour-mark, it’s easy to make comparisons.
If you’ve got an open mind or the time and patience, catch up on this overlooked gem via the Bandcamp player below:
– JR