CVLT Nation’s Top 6
Doom Records 2013

6. GRAVECODE NEBULA: Sempiternal Void

Label: Baneful Genesis Records

The long awaited full length offering from Salt Lake City blackened doom coven Gravecode Nebula has at last reared its unsightly head upon the hapless dregs of humanity. Their 2011 split with Kreig left us with an unbeknownst void that only a further installment of the band’s psychedelically-fueled creeping doom could fill. The end result would eventually conclude with something that far surpassed all preconceived expectations, and by extension, would define the band’s first steps into crafting something wholly their own.

Sempiternal Void focuses around a core theme that all subsequent tracks therein revolve around, allowing for a consistent delivery of the band’s beautiful imagery conceived through several vantage points, the result of which is tended through painstakingly constructed movements that allow for a richly connective depth. An air of visceral, haunting imagination looms overhead, omnipresent, creating an aura of terrifying dissonance, brilliantly woven within the fabric of this album. Subtle asynchronous melodies float between an otherwise securely interlaced assault add a humanistic element that diverts the sonic equivalent of utter nothingness. Instrumental-driven soundscapes paint a winding introspective into a frantic display that spatters itself in no greater personification than on the final two tracks, “Lethal Aether” and  “Abhorrent Absorbant.” These tracks throw the album into another direction entirely, sounding as if recorded in raw demo form, bring the slow-moving, desperate climb spiraling into a torrential downfall. Encapsulated by the echoing avalanche of riff-consumed madness, Sempiternal Void fades to a slow, squealing shadow and then at once is concluded, leaving the bleak and discordant reminder of its 60+ minute length close behind…Full CVLT Nation Review HERE!

5. USNEA: Self Titled Album

Portland is a well known niche for extreme heavy music. It gave birth to great acts like Aldebaran, Megaton Leviathan, Atriarch, Trees, Black Chalice, Agalloch and many more. Usnea is another fine example of doom bands coming out of the Portland scene. Featuring Zeke Rogers (ex-Amarok and owner of Orca Wolf Records) on drums, Justin Cory (ex-Bodhisattva) on guitar & shrieking vocals, Joel “The Wizard” Williams (who also performs as Banishing, a one man black metal band) on bass & guttural vocals and Johhny Lovingood (Effrays, Electric Desert, Descent from the Cross) on guitar. Coming from such different musical backgrounds and drawing influence from all over, their musical sensibilities end up working out surprisingly well. Fusing elements of funeral doom, sludge and black metal with lyrics that, as they state, revolve around the human condition in a world full of oppression and bleakness which gives them inspiration but also fuels their anger. Recorded at Haywire Studios with Fester (who also recorded great records by Stoneburner, Nux Vomica, Atriarch, Burials, Knelt Rote, Rabbits, Spectral Tombs and many others), Adam Gonsalvez mastered this mammoth hour long, four song session and Orca Wolf released the record in February of 2013.

Kicking off with “Chaoskampf,” we enter slowly into a vast and foggy scenario where melodic notes seem to echo in the distance, but it doesn’t take long before we are brutally awakened and crushed with a heavy mass of doom. We are literally thrown to the ground by the impact of the slow paced riffs that, allied with the drum and Joel’s cavernous voice, result in a perfect alchemy with the guitar that weeps in the background in that really melancholic and dramatic funeral doom tone. The fusion of funeral doom with atmospheric sludge are melted here (and along the album) perfectly, creating a pretty cohesive sound where we can distinguish each instrument as they crush us, note upon note. Suddenly, without any warning, we’re hit by a storm of blackness. A blizzard made out of blastbeats and tremolo picking unleashes all of its fury commanded by the grim voice of Justin that seems more like the horrific screams from a harpy cast down from Hell. Nobody would guess this unexpected twist into this track – it’s these kind of details that really hook me up to a track, especially when we are facing tracks that are 17 or more minutes long. Then, without any signs of warning, the track forks again from this vile black metal attack to the slow paced doom closing in a way which is, at least, epic…Full CVLT Nation Review HERE!

4. LYCUS: Tempest

Cast your mind back two years to a little demo that surfaced by a four-piece from Oakland. We talked about it (albeit badly, I was terrible at this whole writing thing back then – no sassy comments please) then, and we included it on our “Top 6 Demos” of 2011 because it was absolutely incredible. DEMO 2011 was three tracks of pure, unadulterated anguish and we’ve been waiting for Lycus to throw a full length out into world ever since. It’s been a long, long wait but holy crap, it was worth it.

Tempest takes the raw spirit from that early demo and moulds it into something altogether more beautiful and destructive. The three new tracks here are more profound and mature compositions, and to hear the curve into new soundscapes is as exciting as it is terrifyingly heavy. Lycus have on their hands a record of truly magnificent stature, and their first full length is quite the achievement.

Artwork by Paolo Girardi.

“Coma Burn” begins Tempest on waves of sweetly sorrowful guitar and already the jump from the demo is starkly apparent in the layers of sound that weave together slow, processional lines of guitar and a minimal drum beat that intertwines with deep, rough vocals and adds to the oppressive atmosphere. Drummer Trevor Deschryver takes control of the rasps whilst guitarist Jackson handles the doomed, bottomless lows, and when rolled around each other “Coma Burn” twists into a fantastically morose and funereal chant. An element of grief feeds into the occasional off-kilter inflection of strings and a feeling of complete hopelessness breathes despondent life into the closing minutes of this first song…Full CVLT Nation Review HERE!

3. Primitive Man: Scorn LP

Bleak, despairing, and totally taxing. Such is the world of Primitive Man’s Scorn, a devastatingly crushing and austere slab of blackened, sludgy doom. Helmed by Ethan McCarthy, vocalist of Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire and Death of Self, Primitive Man sees McCarthy pull back the reins musically to a more lethargic pace. Where Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire are more adept with searing and chaotic stings of grind, Scorn explores more languid terrain that can be uneasy listening at times.

Despair drips from every crack and crevice of this record. The strenuous 11 minutes of the opening title track lay as evidence of this gritty hopelessness as a mire of guitars and an even dirtier bass tone pervade the din. McCarthy’s vocals then are pivotal to the overall execution of both the track and atmosphere, as his scorching screams graze against your ears.

A glimpse at the album’s artwork really sets the tone for this record. Its gun pointing image and victim’s pained expression corresponds so perfectly with the harrowing music held within the album’s seven songs. The grand aesthetic of Primitive Man is that very much of the primitive and Scorn is basic in nearly all forms. Maintaining a simplistic aim of sour, murky guitars and unnerving atmosphere, the band has crafted a sizeably impressive first effort…Full CVLT Nation Review HERE!

2. SUBROSA: More Constant Than The Gods

I think it is very safe to say that most metal bands don’t particularly value songwriting.  This is more prevalent in some permutations than others, but particularly in the doom/sludge/stoner vortex, the only considerations for some seem to be “are we playing the riff?” or “are we playing a clip of one of us ripping a bong?” Granted, I love that clip, and it’s kicked off many a classic riff, but those two in combination can only keep a song, let alone a career, going for so long.  Eventually, I want something more.

Subrosa has just the skills to fix that.  This Salt Lake City band’s fourth release, More Constant Than The Gods, moves and sways like the deck of a sinking ship, tilting from crushing riffs to night-sky expansiveness with a crucial ear for harmony.  “Cosey Mo” builds from a bluesy riff into its protracted, four-minute climax of swirling violins and soaring vocals, as singer and songwriter Rebecca Vernon monastically repeats her mantra of “burning/instead of you.”  She repeats that image, adding “ire” on closer “No Safe Harbor,” this year’s sludgy piano ballad to beat, droning flute and electric strings flying high overhead.

Doom with a taste for atmosphere isn’t new, however, and it isn’t only what Subrosa does right here.  Rather, most of these songs inhabit structures that your parents or grandparents would recognize.  Though stretched past the 10-minute-mark in all but one case, these are undeniably songs, with melodies and refrains and codas that betray a band interested in craft and polish, the days of insular noisemaking long passed.

Take the record’s most successful song, opener “The Usher.”  Three minutes of slowly-picked bass thrum under first female and then male voices, the two never quite meeting as feedback loops and violin saws and tension builds.  After a few seconds of silence, the hammer comes down, and sludgy guitars and drums enter the picture, eventually joined by delay-drenched pizzicato strings that swirl wildly-dissonant figures to a furious downbeat.  As music goes, it’s explicit, illustrating more than evoking.  “All of my life I’ve been waiting for you” Vernon howls in harmony with Kim Pack and Sarah Pendleton, the group’s violinists, and you see, instead of simply feel, her meaning.  It’s powerful stuff…Full CVLT Nation Review HERE!

1. WINDHAND: SOMA

Windhand’s slow crawl to the top of the current doom scene has been a delight to experience. After their much anticipated, self-titled debut of 2012 and this year’s excellent showing on a split with Cough, Windhand seem set to leave a trail of utter desolation in their wake.

Soma is Windhand’s sophomore effort and it builds on the debut with more atmospheric woe and emotion than you ever thought possible. Windhand take a smoky glance at the tribulations of life and the dread that is conjured by the knowledge that death awaits us all.

Soma gets straight down to it with the mind-bending rhythms of “Orchard” in which Dorthia Cottrell’s voice sweeps into hazy being around some truly mesmerising, crunched down guitar progressions. Cottrell imbues her words with a smoky resonance that picks at the fragments of reality and swallows the heightened textures of Asechiah Bogdan’s and Garrett Morris’ guitar into a pit of black light. “Orchard” and indeed the album as a whole, has no business being this damn catchy and the hooks are as memorable as those of past masters showing that Windhand are adept are writing terrifically heavy, tangible songs.

“Woodbine” wraps Cottrell’s voice in misty, cloying, heavy tones of guitar that soak into the oppressive atmosphere while sudden and gorgeous lines of guitar lift the track from a place of utter blackness to engage you in simple, yet glorious melodies that flow freely and without hesitation despite the obvious darkness of the lyrical content…Full CVLT Nation Review HERE!