Arizona dwellers Albino Python have been making music together for, as far as I can tell, at least fifteen years and at present Eric Corder (guitar, bass, drums) and Shelly Delbridge (vocals) have a black metal project – A Cloud Forest – as well as the doomed space trip of Albino Python to handle. And handle it they do. Albino Python ain’t anything new on the ol’ doom scene but the duo and their debut have enough of the good stuff to keep you interested and wanting more. Inspired by the occult and the masterful works of one H.P. Lovecraft, Albino Python serve up whiskey-soaked ritual odes to days long passed and if you’re thinking Electric Wizard or Windhand or High Priest of Saturn then you’re certainly within the sphere of this band.
Heady rhythmic grooves infiltrates Albino Python’s offerings and Delbridge’s voice curls its way around hypnotic motions of guitar and a wonderfully rough edge flirts into view on first track “The Haunter of the Dark” when Delbridge steps into harsh vocal approaches. Later, during “Stone Gray Skies” she harmonises her own hazy coils of voice with these more severe tones and the record takes on another dimension of heaviness which shows that Albino Python, although treading the paths of their peers, can still maintain a freshness in a genre that seems to be everywhere at the moment.
“Black Sunday” roils in heated guitar work and Delbridge’s guttural vocal rises up and takes the track into realms of horror that Lovecraft would know all too well. If you can’t imagine this group making DSBM, then Delbridge’s voice here will be enough to sway you (check out “With One Last Breath” from their 2011 record These Mournful Days here) and the aforementioned “Stone Gray Skies” certainly shows that Albino Python are far from running out of doomed tricks.
Sludgy progressions often creep into the atmosphere of The Doomed and The Damned and final track “Born to Burn” revels in the direction of filthy, low tuned guitar and crunched down bass whilst Delbridge spits her bile at all who will (must) listen. There’s a weighty rage lying beneath the tightly wound duo and it spills forth in Delbridge’s varying vocal techniques – almost as though she’s leading the music itself – and Corder fills the remaining space with huge, smoky riffs and processional beats of the drum.
The Doomed and The Damned is a fine debut for a band that have only been an entity for a year or so, but the nature of Delbridge and Corder’s working relationship is such that they play off each other and allow each other the space to breathe and twist and turn with fire whilst never letting their common goal out of sight. It’s a wonderful thing and you should check it out immediately.
You can buy The Doomed and The Damned on cassette from Easy Rider Records here and the vinyl will follow in August. If you’re so inclined, head over to bandcamp where you can hear the record in full. Cool.
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