Old Man Gloom’s brand of experimental sludge has been making waves since the band formed way back in 1999 with Aaron Turner – guitar/vocals – (House of Low Culture, ex-Isis) and Santos Montano on drums (Zozobra). The band soon expanded to include Nate Newton on guitar/vocals (Doomriders, Converge) and Caleb Scofield – bass/vocals – (Cave In, Zozobra) and they released consistently mind-bending records up until 2004. Old Man Gloom took an extremely extended break and when it was announced they’d be back with a new album (recorded by Kurt Ballou) and a handful of live dates….oh how the hells rejoiced. NO comes eight years after last record Christmas but Old Man Gloom have lost none of their visceral edge and pure intensity during that hiatus.
Moulding ambient sounds around harsh electronic layers of high-pitched resonance, NO begins with the deliciously melancholic “Grand Inversion.” Organ-style notes filter through the aura of despondence and a heavy gloom falls across the beginning of this record. Of course that beautiful calm doesn’t last long, and soon “Common Species” bursts forth with dense creations of noise and the familiar vocal of Turner breaks the tranquil energy. Faltering and stuttering guitar progressions fill the thick and rich atmosphere; slow and lumbering with a tangible weight and altogether furious in its extreme moments, this track pulls the elements of Old Man Gloom into one gloriously heavy place.
“To Carry The Flame” betrays the bands hardcore roots with a sublimely aggressive vocal and a filthy bass line; clean vocal sections lift the otherwise forceful nature of the track and lie behind suitably monumental walls of guitar and pounding dreams before playing out on tinnitus inducing electronic feedback. The quieter moments of NO are still deeply painful and it’s this countering style that gives Old Man Gloom a deadly power. Imposing and dominant in the midst of serenity, this is a band that pushes through ambient textures with a lethal command of their sound and the closing seconds of “The Forking Path” that segue deftly into “Shadowed Hand” rumble with a poisonous energy.
Beginning with unnerving and deep rumbles of human construction, “Rats” feels as though it was recorded in a fathomless pit of dark despair. Hollow and echoing with a truly terrifying pulse, the “vocal” is consuming in its unrecognisable form. Yawning (quite literally it would seem), waves of undulating and horrific proclamations build with a potent intonation before convulsive beats kick the track into submission and the droning buzz of “Crescent” appears on the horizon. The dread doesn’t stay and an antithetic sweetness ushers in a gentle acoustic guitar line and an enchanting clean vocal drips with a mournful essence before the vicious “Shuddering Earth” advances with a destructive stomp. Again this track features seconds of calm that are perforated by shouts of absolute desolation. Almost no instrumentation is heard at times, but the vibrating tones of human suffering are plain to hear through the eerie cold. Closing NO with seven minutes of pure, concentrated noise, Old Man Gloom play out their fifth full length in the most difficult of ways. It’s raw and excruciating in length but this is what Old Man Gloom does best. They lull with exquisite misery and then decimate with infinite fury.
Overwhelming.
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