Hello and welcome to another edition of Doomsday! We totally don't forget to run this last month. It was simply a master-plan, because we knew that April would be just as stacked as March and, in our infinite wisdom, we decided to wait and do it all at once. And that's what you have before - a shitload (pardon my French) of amazing stoner, doom, post-metal, and more besides. It really has been a bountiful spring and it is all on array here for you to check out.
Enjoy!
Calyces - Fleshy Waves of Probability
True story - I nearly forgot about Doomsday this month! That would have been a damn shame, since March was probably the best month for our sub-genres in the last few years. The album that ended up reminding me to get the column going is the very one I am writing about right now, which also happens to be my current Album of the Year - Calyces’ Fleshy Waves of Probability. I cannot stress enough how much this album does everything I want from progressive stoner metal - it feels like it was written for me. Therefore, when I was playing it a few days ago, I thought “man, I really haven’t written enough about how good this album is” after which I thought “oh shit, Doomsday!”
So, why do I love this album so much? For me, progressive stoner metal is about balance. You need to strike a special accord (sorry about the pun) between the psychedelic, ambient roots of stoner music and the groovy, riff based writing of metal. If you go overboard on the first influence that’s OK of course (I like psychedelic music) but it often feels like you lack an anchor, something to ground you down. The timbre also tends to be too “dark” for me, losing contrast in favor of large, long blocks of sound. On the other hand, if you’re only slaved to the riff, you end up with music that’s easy and fun to listen to but which lacks depth and repeatability. It’s good but not much more, it isn’t elevated to greatness. Plus, the timbre tends to be too “bright”, brittle and hard to hold on to.
Fleshy Waves of Probability is a masterclass in striking this balance between the two sounds. It is fundamentally driven by intense groove, as its opening track (which we also premiered), “Swirling Towards the Light” will show you. But that groovy core is never a reason unto itself; it is a vehicle to getting the aggression and dynamics out in the open so they can blend with the darker, more ambient sounds that the band wields. “Wastelands”, the third track, is a great example: listen to the more open and expressive riffs that dot it, and the excellent bass. There’s something deeper there and more intricate than “just” groove; there’s a base to explore and it resounds throughout the entire album (future Eden reading this after writing says that the next track, “Lost in Phrase”, is even better for these darker, more somber vibes).
Couple that with the gripping, technical groove that leads the way on the album and you have a true masterpiece. I cannot stay away from this album for long - I crave both its groove and its heft, the fun, sugary pieces and the more meaty, introspective ones. If you’re looking for progressive stoner metal that has staying power beyond “sick riff bro” but which still has many sick riffs, this is the release for you in 2025.
P.S see? A progressive stoner metal review where I didn’t reference Mastodon once.
-Eden Kupermintz
contemplation - Au bord du précipice
I’m about to commit a cardinal skin of Doomsday: I’m not here to talk about riffs. To be clear, contemplation absolutely delivers killer riffs, but they’re a means to an end. The end, in this case, is crushing the listener with a pitch-black blend of dub, death metal, folk metal, and doom.
Au bord du précipice rivals funeral doom in its expansiveness, darkness, and sheer majesty. But contemplation delivers a spellbinding elegance in their sound that stands apart from funeral doom, defying the call of the depths with haunting violins and delicate electronic meditations.
Au bord du précipice is the sound of standing at the edge of a cliff, staring into the darkness. Each moment brings a new temptation: to jump, to scream at the heavens in defiance, to sit and ponder the darkness. Emotions crash and crumble, passing too quickly for any of them to coalesce into action. Au bord du précipice roars with deathly fury, then drones on into mournful bellows, then suddenly collapses into relieved catharsis. Beauty and pain not only coexist, but merge into a shared existence that only becomes more powerful with their joining.
-Bridget Hughes
SLUDGEBUCKET - Vampiric Earth
Oakland’s own stoner metal duo strip doom to its very fundamentals – bass and drums – then stretch these key ingredients to the deepest recesses of the mind. Vampiric Earth is the purist’s take on addictive grooves and psychedelic style, grabbing our ears with both lurching rhythms and trippy arrangements.
The stark minimalism of Vampiric Earth is a new chapter for SLUDGEBUCKET, though hardly a shocking one. Their sound has always favored a rough-and-tumble, no-frills approach, but Vampiric Earth takes that lean, mean sound to new levels by eliminating vocals and minimizing fuzz. The shift seems to have freed SLUDGEBUCKET, giving the band a license to experiment with their favorite aspects of stoner and doom metal without distraction.
Vampiric Earth feels simultaneously focused and exploratory. Like a mantra, the bass grounds our journey while opening the mind to new realms: focus is the ultimate freedom, dedication is our path to the unexpected. If you find yourself lost in the groove, a measured shift will bring you back to center and a new realm to explore. Each note, even when surprising, feels deliberate and contemplative. Vampiric Earth is the effortlessly cool sound of a band hitting their stride (again) in the midst of an 18-year history.
-BH
Soliloquium - Famine
Soliliquium grace us once more with a varied and slew of sadness on their April release, the somewhat ironically titled Famine. There’s plenty to consume and digest here. Helmed by Stefan Nördström and Jonas Bergkvist (who brought some friends along for the ride), Soliloquium draws from a deep well of tearful influences.
With eyes averted, curt nods are made to In Mourning, Kaunis Kuolematon, Rapture, and Swallow the Sun. The shades of sad are varied, and special mention should be made of the delectably downcast guitar work. The harsh vocals roar righteously, and on “The Healing Process” I’m getting some of Ghost Brigade’s “In The Woods”. It’s just rocking a different Nordic accent.
Not all the cleans are as triumphant, and the album’s back half is less gripping at times, dropping off somewhat after Swedish-sung highlight “Sjalamörker”. For a quick shot of death/doom despondency, queue up at the dread lines.
-Boeli Krumperman
Structure - Heritage
Doom comes in many shapes and sizes. Some is slow and pensive, some is thick and burly, some is hot and some is cold.
Some doom metal just makes you want to don your longest, blackest, robiest piece of apparel, sit in an old-timey wooden chair with an even old-timier drink and slowly watch an inexorable disaster transpire. This is that type of doom metal.
Heritage fits in snugly with Hámferð and Ahab as the perfect soundtrack to watching a ship slowly sink beneath the waves from a comfortable distance. There is something regal, majestic and still to be found in this tragedy. Don your robes, sit down and let the soundtrack to an understated tragedy sink in.
-BK
Rwake - The Return of Magik
It feels like it’s been forever since a record hit me quite like The Return of Magik does. In a way that recalls the boundary-pushing heyday of post-metal titans like Isis and Neurosis, Rwake return with a sprawling, fearless work that rewards with immersive listening as well as it satisfies on an immediate level. This is music on a massive scale—not just in heft of sound, but in creative scope and ambition.
Clocking in with most tracks stretching well beyond the eight-minute mark, The Return of Magik is a dense, labyrinthine journey. Each composition feels like its own little ecosystem, shifting and evolving with a purpose that makes the whole journey feel diverse, compelling, and complete. There’s a touch of urgency in every movement that makes it instantly indelible (if you’re not saying “oh shit!” like three times in each track, something may be wrong with you), but also a sense of freedom—like the band is ignoring convention and trends. Maybe their long hiatus helped dissolve any lingering expectations, clearing the path for something so raw and exploratory and inspired to take shape. Fortunately, the end result is something that sounds like Rwake we know and love, but more importantly, it sounds like new Rwake.
Calling this “post-sludge” really only scratches the surface. Rwake’s cosmic gumbo of styles: psych, prog, Southern rock, death, black metal, folk, and more all find time to shine. Their sound is incredibly varied and dark, but The Return of Magik finds cohesion among it all, largely thanks to their vast instrumental arsenal including Moog synths, samples, 12-string bass, piano, a triple-guitar approach, pedal steel, dual vocalists—and then some. It’s an indulgent listen that both treats the ears and takes time to absorb, and the rewards keep coming listen after listen—it’s super captivating.
The compositions are exquisitely layered and dense, like a thorny hedgemaze for your ears. From the mystical, cinematic opening of “You Swore We’d Always Be Together” and its subsequent pivot to lumbering multitudes of sludge to the mushroomy warble of the sample in “Distant Constellations and the Psychedelic Incarceration” and the doomy harmonies and country western flavors of “In After Reverse,” Rwake have found a way not just to contain listeners in this resplendent sphere, but also keep things moving and varied enough to avoid crutching on riff worship or gimmicky ideas.
Amid this sonic tangle, new guitarist Austin Sublett’s leads unfurl with color and clarity, threading a sense of wonder through the darkness and intriguing warmth felt on this album. His playing adds a shimmer to the band’s dynamic interplay, lending some welcome flair in an often understated, subtle genre. Additionally, the vocals land exceptionally, too. It often feels like being chased by a pack of rabid dogs—feral, unrelenting, and coming from every direction (a real treat for you headphones listeners). It’s a chaotic element, but never careless; even in their wildest moments. They always play well with the instrumentation, amplifying the album’s emotional weight and fervor.
Ultimately, this is more than just a comeback—it’s a transformation and reemergence of one of the very best post-sludge acts around. The Return of Magik is well worth the 15-ish-year wait, living up to its name and then some: a true return of magic.
-Jordan Jerabek
Museum of Light - Diviner
The Pacific Northwest is home to many storied music scenes but one of the more underrated ones is the sludgy post-metal scene up there. Case in point - Museum of Light. I had been aware of them in the periphery of my musical network but Diviner suddenly blazed bright across its nodes when it was released in March. Everyone was raving about this album and how good it was so I decided to check it out and...was initially sort of lukewarm. The riffs were good and the vocals were hitting home but I felt like there was something missing, some sort of promise that the album made which I didn’t feel was fully realized.
Until I say my ass down and listened to the whole thing in one sitting and, suddenly, everything clicked. You see, there is a decidedly bright tone to Diviner throughout, contrasting with the heavy heft and fuzzy impact of the tracks. But it’s not a pop-sludge brightness, though Torche and Floor are of course touch points for this release, as they are for anyone operating in these spaces. It’s a more melancholic brightness, of long, cold days stretching out in introspection. You can hear it all the way in the beginning of the album when “Body”, the groovy opening track, ends in an ambient outro. It makes me feel like it’s a Sunday, forever, and the horizon and sky are stretching out into eternity.
This soon collapses into “Blunt Force Drama”, the second track off the album, and the groove is very much back in full effect. And that’s what I felt like was missing: more time spent with these ethereal, haunting vibes. I wanted Museum of Light to help me work through this feeling of dejection and faint hope that they had invoked and, instead, they went on to evoking different moods, mostly around momentum and heaviness. But here’s the thing: if you listen all the way through to Diviner, that melancholy is going to come back and it’s going to do it in marvellous, beautiful ways. “Blunt Force Drama” has it as well, as do many of the tracks in between it and the closing of the album, but as the runtime continues, it will come to hold a more and more central place in Museum of Light’s sound, until it culminates in the closing track for the album, “Breathe”.
“Breathe” is hands down one of the most beautiful tracks I’ve ever heard. It makes me think of Anathema’s Weather Systems and you know what kind of compliment that is for me, or of Curse These Metal Hands’ “High Spirits”. It beautifully returns to that melancholy and integrates it more closely with the groovy, fuzzy parts of the band’s sound, to create an effective and “broad” track that encapsulates the album so so well. It makes me think of Disco Elysium as well, hope mingled with the past, with letting go of things that hurt you while coming to terms with them and the role they played in your life. It exemplifies the power and evocativeness of post-metal and post-rock done well. It’s one fucking brilliant track, OK?
And from there, I was sold. I went back to Diviner, many, many times, tracking how Museum of Light build up to this exceptional closer. I learnt to listen to the hints of it across the album and re-appreciate how it interacts with the rest of the band’s sound. And I learnt to love that interaction and tension.
-EK
Eyes of Argus - Honey’d Dreams
The world is fucked in so many ways, but one bright spot continues to be passionate, ethical independent labels betting on artists they believe in. Fiadh Productions – a woman-led, anti-fascist, and vegan label in New York – has long been one of my go-to sources for underground black metal and dungeon synth, and I’m so excited to see them producing multiple vinyl releases this year. Captured on a gorgeous smoky purple vinyl, Honey’d Dreams is a dreamy, fuzzy delight.
Floating somewhere in the realm of Brume, Hippie Death Cult, and Vanishing Kids, Eyes of Argus drape ethereal feminine vocals over slabs of stoned fuzz. Basking in the wall-of-sound heaviness of stoner doom and shoegaze, Honey’d Dreams is simultaneously angelic and devilish. Fuzzy guitars rivaling any traditional stoner doom album cut with lurching abrasiveness, while romantic vocals echo with defiance and determination. The heady contrast should feel awkward or forced, but Eyes of Argus builds feral tension with calculated fury. The result is a ferocious incantation delivered with menace and grace.
-BH
Chainsaw - Chainsaw
It’s a dungeon crawler’s world, we’re just living in it. Each week seems to deliver new sonic realms to be explored in science fiction- and fantasy-themed dungeon synth, heavy metal, and doom. No matter what type of adventurer you are, your soundtrack awaits.
Brought to our expectant ears by the dungeon masters at Sokol Keep, Chainsaw delivers the distinct sound of dungeon sludge: dungeon synth’s fuzzier, murkier cousin, best-suited to midnight quests and tales of medieval terror. Structured for cassettes, Chainsaw is fuzzy nostalgia steeped in fantastic lore. The two epic tracks are lurching beasts gleaming with sinister heaviness and lurching riffs, complete with echoing vocals that mimic the warnings of souls lost in battle. Whether the distortion is memory faded with time, or a shroud of mystery concealing the next challenge on your quest is up to you. No matter the era, Chainsaw will test your mettle and your neck.
-BH
Further Listening
I’m not kidding when I say that March and April were some of the best months for stoner and doom in years. Here are a few examples that didn’t make it to the main post but which absolutely deserve your attention.
Pyres - Yun
Guiltless - Teeth to the Sky
Telepathy - Transmissions
SUMAC and Moor Mother - The Film