This debut album from Temptress was a long time coming. The Texan band returned to the studio following the release of their debut EP in 2019, but soon had their work halted by the global pandemic. The album’s recording was finally finished in 2021, after which Temptress signed with Metal Assault Records. Instead of getting the material out straight away, everyone waited until the time was right, and ‘See’ eventually saw the light of day in the first quarter of 2023, over three years on from its inception.
Tag Archives: doom metal
HERON – Empires of Ash
Following a couple of EP releases, Canadian doom/sludge metal merchants Heron found themselves on the roster of bands at the independent Sludgelord Records. The sometime home of Stone Machine Electric, Bible Basher and Coffin Torture, the band would be in good company, and in many ways, associations with such a great label forced them to up their game. Their 2018 LP ‘A Low Winter Sun’ was a masterclass in weighty sounds; its sludge fuelled approach suggested a love of Conan, and it’s purer doom elements drew from Electric Wizard, but for the more finely tuned ear, the record also displayed a strange, deep psych and heavy post rock tone in the guitar work that allowed the extremely heavy sound to appear more cinematic in its own way.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – A Future Of Bad Men: A Melvins Tribute
Few bands have been more influential to the alternative scene than (the) Melvins. Since their arrival in the early eighties, the noisemakers from Washington have forged an uncompromising musical path which has inspired punk and doom metal bands alike. They’ve encouraged many to twist the elements of rock music into unfathomable shapes. Their early work laid the formations for what many consider “grunge”. Somehow, in the mid 90s, they even managed to score a recording deal with a major label, which inspired them to become even more obtuse, first releasing a single that had a lyric in a made up language (‘Hooch’) and promote a slightly later release with a track that included a drawling vocal, a sludge metal riff and an atonal jazz solo played on the trombone. Even more bizarrely, that single (‘Bar-X The Rocking M’) even had its video shown on MTV. The Melvins’ career has taken many forms, and it’s rarely been pretty, but it has never, ever been dull.
GNASH – Shared Nightmares EP
Newcomers to the sludge metal scene for 2022, Gnash make a brilliant noise on their debut release ‘Shared Nightmares’. Its four songs are devastatingly heavy, and right from the opening bars of ‘The Darker Half’, there’s a sense of absolute commitment to conveying weight via those riffs, since bassist Ethan Martin wields a tone that sounds like he’s playing back an old Melvins riff at half speed. Even when the guitars make a slightly later arrival, Gnash sound like a band wading through a musical swamp, and the layer of distortion that covers a massive doom riff only serves their purpose greater, and in less than a minute, they seem set to win over a whole raft of doom and sludge devotees even before this release is barely off the ground.
EWIGKEIT – Out Of The Woods EP
To move forwards, sometimes you have to go backwards. That’s certainly the case with Ewigkeit and their 2022 EP ‘Out of The Woods’. This follow up to the band’s excellent – and intense – pandemic inspired EP ‘Depopulate’ features three tracks that were written for James Fogarty’s former band In The Woods at some point prior to 2019. However, circumstances led to the band splitting, and James decided it wouldn’t be wise to let some potentially strong material go to waste.