February 28th, 2012
Genre: Blackened Sludge
Region: USA
Thanks to The Living Doorway once again for this one. That cover totally reminds me of Inquisition's "Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult" reissue art, and Vasaeleth's debut cover art for that matter.
Dark and heavy. Thick blackened sludgy riffs and deafening bellows emanate from the two eight minute tracks on this EP. At many points the drumming is oppressive but without drowning the other instruments. The thing is they aren't exactly like the waves hardcore bands that implement aspects of black metal and sludge into their sound, while it's clear those genres are an influence here they combine them much more comfortably. One could say they take a more Seven Sisters of Sleep approach — though in a longer form and their direction is much different still. It's very effective, managing to hold your attention all the way through. Fire in the Cave have refined the two songs well.
They have a crusty southern feel when not wallowing in the black metal aspect (especially in the solos), flashes of dissonance and melody help add variation to the onslaught of massive angry doom grooves and momentary lapses into quiet atmospheric summits.
An awesome debut. These guys have a great handle on their style, the potential to capture a huge audience is quite obvious. And they're nice enough to put the EP up at pay-what-you-want on bandcamp. Follow their shit on facebook.
DOWNLOAD (Bandcamp)
Shucks. Awesome review.
ReplyDelete