Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
To borrow from Job 38:3, “gird up your loins,” aka get ready. It’s time to “man up” and listen to new doom music – some of it already here, others yet to come.
Void Rot
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou – May Our Chambers Be Full
First off, at the end of October, Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou will release their collaborative album, May Our Chambers Be Full, which promises to be kick-ass excellent.
One track, “Ancestral Recall,” is presently available for your listening pleasure on Bandcamp, an appetizer designed to entice you to put a crowbar in that rust-covered contraption in your purse or back pocket – your wallet. Open it and part with some dosh.
“Ancestral Recall” opens on muscle-bound guitars, deep and heavy, growling and moaning, followed by Emma’s haunting voice, which elevates to rasping, guttural timbres from the abyss of Hell. Then she shifts back to dreamy, ominous melodic textures, slowly building once again to blistering, chaffing tones, as if from the mouth of Medusa.
Poema Arcanvs – Stardust Solitude
Poema Arcanvs, the doom metal outfit from Chile, just dropped a new album, Stardust Solitude, encompassing eight-tracks revealing sonic omens from another dimension, a dimension black as night and full of wafting mephitic vapors.
Poema Arcanvs is made up of Claudio Carrasco (vocals), Juan Diaz (bass), Igor Leiva (guitar), and Luis Moya (drums). Each member of the band demonstrates their expertise with aplomb.
“Orphans” stands out as one of the better tracks, although there isn’t a lame track on the album. The track opens on fat cavernous guitars topped by Claudio’s portentous vocals, which, wonderfully, eschew the usual cookie-monster banshee screams.
Moya’s drumming is finessed and powerful, functioning as another instrument rather than simply keeping the beat, inserting massive rolling breaks, and walloping cracks.
The intro to “Haven” is worth the price of admission all by itself. Be sure to check this album out.
Void Rot – Descending Pillars
Minnesota’s death-doom outfit Void Rot will drop their debut LP, Descending Pillars, September 11 via Sentient Ruin Laboratories. Vastly underrated, Void Rot puts their talent for dread-filled music on display on this album.
Void Rot consists of JH on guitars, synths, and vocals; KS on guitars; CC on bass; and WB on drums, with the guitar solo on “Monolith” provided by Alex Walstad.
Of the three tracks available for preview, the two best are the title track and “Inversion.” If pressed, my favorite of the two is "Descending Pillars" because of its slow, low, and surging waves of guitars riding mesmerizing percussion – the double-bass blows listeners into the dynasphere.
Primitive Man - Immersion
About two weeks ago, Denver’s premier death-sludge outfit Primitive Man dropped Immersion, an album rife with opaque anxiety and palpable dark resolve.
Primitive Man’s Ethan McCarthy comments on the album, saying, "Souring your view on your existence and everything you had worked towards. Allowing you to become possessed by the darkest parts of your mind that you have carried around your entire life and not dealt with."
And then adds, "Now you're a grown man and you're fucked."
“The Lifer” opens on squealing feedback, followed by subterranean guitars rippling with sprays of thick, oozing menace, quaking with trembling shagginess. And even though the vocals convey the anticipated bellowing crusty tones, at least they’re roars rather than shrieks, and thus add granulated timbres, infusing the lyrics with prodigious flavors of ruin.
