Well, well, well, hello there heaviest of bloggers and welcome to this, the March edition of Doomsday! “But Eden”, you might say, “you are not Pete!” Verily, you are very astute dear reader. It is indeed I! Pete has A Lot going on in his life right now so I have graciously (and magnanimously, if I might say so myself) stepped in to take over Doomsday in his absence. Don’t worry, he’ll be back! His blood contract with the blog is not yet fulfilled. For the most part, I will keep Doomsday on the same track as Pete, namely focusing on the lowest, slowest, and fuzziest of metal’s. But I also want to change things up a bit and focus not just on reviews or highlights from the past month, but more on upcoming releases and singles which are floating out there. I believe that’s just as interesting and important.
So, to kick us off on this new chapter in Doomsday history (this is Chapter 3, if anyone is counting out there), we have a premiere for you today and boy, is it an interesting one. On April 10th, two great labels (Desert Records and Blues Funeral) are gearing up to release Women of Doom, a collaborative effort featuring bands like Year of The Cobra, Heavy Temple, and The Otolith (AKA most members of the legendary SubRosa). This collaboration, as you might have guessed from the name, focuses on the contribution of women to the genre of doom. If you hadn’t noticed, that contribution is everywhere, with women behind (or in front) of many of the best bands in the industry right now and in the past (off the top of my head: Windhand, Messa, the aforementioned SubRosa, Royal Thunder, High Priestess and many more).
Which is why we’re proud to be premiering a track from this collaboration! The track comes to us from Heavy Temple, a band that usually makes a kind of thick, undulating psychedelic rock but have here decided to channel their inner Candlemass, with vocalist Nighthawk overseeing the proceedings with her powerful voice. Says Nighthawk:
We weren’t quite sure if we should write something totally new or go with an idea we’d been working on. We were pretty much done with the new album at that point, and our drummer had this song he’d written that just seemed to fit the bill. We all love traditional doom, especially Candlemass, so we wanted to branch out and do something fun. A little out of our wheelhouse but still very much Heavy Temple.
It’s a doom song through and through. So keeping that in mind I wanted the theme to be kind of tongue in cheek. “Astral Hand” is sort of a Sabbathian ode to all the songs about Satan or demons or evil wizards. It’s definitely a bit of a departure from normal Heavy Temple material as far as lyrical content in that it’s a bit more traditional. I had a lot of fun coming up with the concept and crafting a story.
Sold and sold! The track veritably drips with the energies and influences cited above. It does a fantastic job of capturing that epic, enveloping feeling we all love doom metal for, mostly centered around Nighthawk’s captivating vocals. But it also leaves plenty of room for those dominant guitars and Heavy Temple’s excellent groove section (check out their track “Key and Bone” from their 2017 release for a taste of how much that groove section kicks ass). All in all, this track is a great indication of the kind of great music you can expect from the Women of Doom compilation, so make sure you head on over here to pre-order it before scrolling down below to check out the rest of the fun tidbits I have planned for you this Doomsday.
Morsels from the Swamp
Marrowfields – Metamorpheses
We’ll have more on these guys very soon, as we’re gearing up to premiere our own track from this release, but I couldn’t let them go unmentioned on Doomsday. This Rhode Island band channel the kind of emotional doom which would garner them comparisons to Pallbearer or Garganjua. Like those bands, their guitars echo expansively, setting forth rich melodies and ideas. Drawing on Greek mythology and, specifically, the masterpieces of Ovid’s career, Marrowfields deal with despair and sorrow, channeling these emotions through their music to an impressive degree.
What’s more, they have one of the more arresting vocalists which I’ve heard in a while. His voice has a timbre that’s undeniable, deep and resounding whether it is lamenting in a more contained mode on the verses or extolling us as to the folly of man on the explosive choruses. It goes a long way towards completing the effective package of Marrowfields music, working beautifully with the prominent instrumentation to create the atmosphere the band is going for.
You can head on over to the excellent Invisible Oranges for your first taste or hit the band’s Bandcamp to pre-order this fantastic release ahead of its April 24th release. And keep watching this space, since we’ll have a new track from these guys for you very soon!
In the Company of Serpents – LUX
From the heights of emotional doom to the depths of corrosive sludge! In the Company of Serpents is a Denver based band (try to act surprised) that make a sort of groovy, intensely acidic type of occultic doom/sludge that’s incredibly hard to resist. Their new track, “The Fool’s Journey” is a fantastic example of that: just listen to that bass go! When coupled with incredibly consistent and heavy-hitting drums, the groove on the track is fully unleashed is finally unleashed, to gyration inducing results. The vocals follow suit, taking on a more scratchy, abrasive tone that works very well with the prominent low end on the track.
Of course, this track is not devoid of its mournful atmosphere. It wouldn’t be doom metal otherwise! The more acoustic “gap” smack in the track’s middle is a more droning segment, beautifully composed and perfectly setting up the explosive return of the track’s main line. Things slow down a bit more, with the cymbals punctuating the grinding of the riffs. The vocals become even more expansive, screaming out across the black spaces left behind by the guitars’ extensive feedback. Make sure you stick around for the band’s explosive outro, as the guitars suddenly pick up pace and the whole thing gets a thrash metal edge that’s an intensely satisfying way to close a track. You will make the stank face; I command it.
LUX, the band’s sixth release, is scheduled to see release on May 15th. Head on over to the band’s Bandcamp below to pre-order it.
OK, doomsters, that’s it for me this month. Stay low! Stay slow! And for god’s sake, stay home! I’ll see you next month.