LP Review: "Tomb of Doom" by Tar Pit

Tomb of Doom

Some days are for trying out new things, and some days, it's good to have the same old comforts.

Take Tar Pit for example.

This band, formed in 2014, was basically inactive until 2017, now here in 2019 we have their thunder drum of a debut.

Tar Pit has named themselves and their album in such a way that it's essentially impossible for the listener to get it wrong.

They are a doom metal band that's so full of sludge, just listening to the opening track will make you cough like a two pack a day smoker.

But it takes more than just an on the nose title and band name to get me interested. Songs that clock in around ten minutes certainly catches my attention as well.

Tomb of Doom is a perfect example of Doom Metal out of the Pacific Northwest. It's equal parts soft and heavy. Light and dark. It's as melodic as it is crushing.

They've taken the ten minute doom song to a new level. The band self released the album digitally, but now you can get this 5 track masterpiece on vinyl or cassette.

Don't miss it.

RELEASE 6/28/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Classic Spins with Owl Maker

Owlmaker

How many times have we featured the doomed out death grooves of Owl Maker on the pages of Glacially Musical?

Probably at least eleventy.

And as long as they keep on keeping on we'll keep featuring these East Coast, New England Elites, but only providing they disavow all things that we don't like.

We at Glacially Musical need to know that they're pro-good things and anti-bad things and we haven't heard much about that from them at this point.

I held a staff meeting to discuss this with, myself and I..we agreed that Owl Maker's music is awesome and we're going to continue to probe until such point that they give us that clickbait title.

1. My favorite kind of album is the concept album. The Wall is my absolute favorite. Beyond the amazing songs, it has spectacular nostalgia for me. What's your favorite one and why?

LP Review: "Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring" by Smoulder

Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring

Respect the process.

That's what Ben Folds told us during his all request paper airplane tour thing and it stuck with me. The all encompassing and all powerful process helps me.

Today the process was kind of a failure. After skimming through over a hundred emails to find the quality, the goal, the diamond in the rough...the process had come up empty.

Then this little script flipper came up.

Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring is the debut album by a set of Torontonians.

In some ways, it's the epitome of 80's Heavy Metal. Look at that cover. It's colorful, cool, and straight out of Conan The Barbarian.

The tracks are riffy and thick. The kind of music that the person who hates heavy metal in 2019 can really sink his teeth into. For me, I love metal in 2019 and this album still kicks major ass.

Smoulder respected the process and came out swinging with this thumper of a debut record. Here's to hoping is all up from here.

RELEASE 4/26/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Bookin' It with Simon Tuozzoli of Owl Maker

Based on what's been printed on these pages regarding New England based doom band, Owl Maker, our readers may think that it's a solo band led by one Jessie May.

But it's time to answer the full question.

Did you know there are in fact three people in Owl Maker?

Today we're going to hear from burly frontman Simon Tuozzoli about, of course, BOOKS!

1. I try to read at least two books per month, and mostly fail, what's your goal and reality? 

My goal is a book every quarter -- but in reality, depending on the size of the book, it’s surprising if I read three books in a year. I’m on my second book this year, got to get my ass in gear.

Classic Spins with Becoming the Lion

This is the first time that one of the bands has answered one of the questions in Classic Spins with, essentially, well we did it!

With that, meet Wisconson's native sons: Becoming The Lion.

What started off as a solo project morphed into a fully fleshed out trio. That's right. One man has reproduced asexually by cutting off fingers and those fingers then became a bass player and a drummer.

At least that's how it's happened in my head and NO ONE WILL CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE.

Check out their latest EP on BANDCAMP and be friends on FACEBOOK.

1. My favorite kind of album is the concept album. The Wall is my absolute favorite. Beyond the amazing songs, it has spectacular nostalgia for me. What's your favorite one and why?

LP Review: "Mere Mortals" by The Lumberjack Feedback

Mere Mortals

It's been over three years since the mighty Frenchmen that people The Lumberjack Feedback have been inside of my ears with new songs.

They're a band that's really hard to describe, but that are ever so good.

Their last album, Blackened Visions, is in vinyl rotation in my house. It's an absolute gem of an avant garde instrumental record.

Now, they have returned and they have added...

I'm not going to say vocals, because they're still an avant garde instrumental band, but perhaps they're a touch more focused.

Really, I should have listened to the aforementioned Visions record before writing this, but there was a Blues hockey game on the TV last night and my family loves hockey.As The Lumberjack Feedback is French, they probably don't much care for it, because they're French French and not French Canadian.

There's no perfect adjectives to describe their sound and no adverbs that can relate to how they're creating that sound. Their songs allow the listener to check out of their head and fall into the natural vibrato and reverb.

It's easy to get lost in there.

RELEASE 4/26/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Bookin' It with Space Coke

Space Coke

Let's get back to getting energetic in the universe!

It seems only right that my first work back after being sick in bed is something on Space Coke.

They're a doom metal band who had the audacity to put a dead knight on the cover of their album. I mean, this is a band that doesn't have any problem being right on the nose..

Or going up it...am I right?

Well, their last record, L'appel Du Vide was a piece of absolute brilliance. You should get on that over at BANDCAMP.

But for now, it's all about books.

1. I try to read at least two books per month, and mostly fail, what's your goal and reality

EP Review: "Cosmic Purge/Foie Gras" by Ancient Altar

Cosmic Purge/Foie Gras

When you think of doom metal, what kind of pictures pop into your mind?

Realistically, the name kind of seems like the bands should be singing about some post apocalyptic wasteland, like Mad Max.

But they don't.

When I hear the term doom metal, my mind's ear (TM) creates a slow, fuzzed out, arpeggio progression that lasts for about seventeen to nineteen minutes in length.

It's preferred that this arpeggio is a bit fuzzy and ringing. If you've got a vibrato pedal, all the better.

It's probably a good idea to tune down your guitar to C# or lower, maybe even to B and then you don't even need a bass player to get down to those low, low tones. Your vocals should have a glassy, church choir like quality to them. If you can get these things down, you might be able to start a doom metal band, but will you?

Could you possibly create an album cover like the one above that perfectly intersects with the music? Ancient Altar has created the most perfect replication of vintage mid modern doom metal.

On top of all of that...you can get this 2 song 12" EP (Hey, it's doom metal.) on glorious vinyl and if you're like me, you can feel the songs pushing the air through your giant speakers.

RELEASE 4/19/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Classic Spins with Negative Wall's Don Cole

Negative Wall

Black Doomba Records is about to release the latest by Tommy Stewart's Negative Wall. You should check that out over at BANDCAMP.

In the meantime, let's talk about records with Don Cole, Negative Wall's six string slinger.

There's even a super sexy vinyl edition of this soon to be future classic doom metal.

1. My favorite kind of album is the concept album. The Wall is my absolute favorite. 

Beyond the amazing songs, it has spectacular nostalgia for me. What's your favorite one and why?

Concept albums are very cool. I've always liked 2112 by Rush, it has great songs, it was one of the albums I learned to play guitar with when I was 12 years old. 

LP Review: "Carrier of Weight" by Eremit

Carrier of Weight

It's a rather common occurrence for me to get ready to lower the boom of doom metal.

Atmospheric doom sludge metal...There are probably several other adverbs that could be tacked onto their description.

Whatever they should be called, they are awesome. This album  has three tracks, two discs, and a Delores. (Just kidding about Delores.)

Track three clocks in at over 33 minutes in length.

Eremit has the ability to play a riff longer than than they should, to get it droning on, but somehow making it never lose its power. This makes the following riffs even more powerful.

This is the kind of record that's perfect for a midweek decompression. The vibrato laden fuzz tones will take you to altered states of consciousness and that will save you some money on beer....or whatever.

RELEASE 2/25/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

LP Review: "Northernmost" by Cold Colours

Northernmost

In a case of art imitating life, I'd like to point your ears towards a doom and death metal band from Minnesota.

Minnesota, for our international readers, is nearly the northernmost state in the United States. Unless you include: Alaska, Maine, and other freak states that aren't Minnesota.

Moving on to the next bit, Cold Colours has taken to using the superfluous U that the Angols and Canucks tend to stick in places where it doesn't belong.

It makes it hard to type your name, fellas.

A quick scan of the album's titles will show that the title track(?) is a recurring theme and is spread out all over the record itself.

Like any Doom band worth mentioning, Cold Colours oozes emotional angst. On the flipside, it also gets a bit deathy here and there with some brutal vocals. The entire album is a bit like Northern Minnesota.

It hovers between being American and being Canadian, just like this band hovers between melodious and brutal. It's a beautiful piece of art that never hesitates to show the listener its ugly side.

RELEASE 2/22/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

LP Review: "Animist" by Werian

Animist

Lately, it's been a lot of death and black metal. It's been far too long since we've made an acquaintance with a new doom metal band.

Well, Germany's Werian is definitely a doom metal band who's got hands I'd like to shake.

To get it all out of the way, Animist is an album based on one of the oldest religions in the world. It even pre-dates Christianity's roots, which are only about 4,000 years old anyway.

The record is comprised of three tracks. Three supersized tracks. Long form metal is the best kind of metal.

Over the course of forty four minutes, Werian weaves spells of doom and death with ambitiously progressive songs.

Arpeggios? Chunking chords? Whispered vocals? These things and more are all here. One of the things you won't find though, double bass blast beats.

Werian's latest opus isn't out to beat you over the head to prove to you how metal it is. They aren't screaming in the square, but they're waging a whisper campaign to convert you into Animism. It's so subtle, by the time you've been convinced, you'll think it was your idea all along.

RELEASE 2/22/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Video: "Nostrum Mare (Ed deixo un pont de mar blava)" by Helevorn

When doom metal is what you need, the fellas in Helevorn have you covered. They have just released their latest record, Aamamata on vinyl, CD, and digital. You can see about picking that up HERE.

Vocalist Josep Brunet says this about the song...

This is a song about what our Mediterranean Sea was and what is nowadays… I mean, during the past times it was a sea to share, to grow, of course, there was a lot of wars, but it was our true nation, of all of us, so in this song appears eight different languages of our big cultural area (Greek, Maltese, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, Italian, French, and Hebrew), and we had our friends and fans of the band do the vocals on it.

The lyrics for it are from a poem by Catalan writer, Miquel Martí I Pol, translated into these eight languages. The melodic vocals done by Julia Colom too are really awesome; we had goosebumps on our skin when she was recording her vocal parts. Very epic, gothic and very deep.

In the mean time, check out their latest video below:

Hometown Tales with Northern Crown's Zachary Randall

Northern Crown

Northern Crown is putting doom metal on the map in Florida, but if we're being terribly  honest, how much more doom can America's handle really take?

There's so much abject wackiness going on in that state, I worry for their continued safety. Did you know there is a python problem in the Everglades?!

Too many Floridians decided their pythons were far too much work and they tossed them into the swamp!

Oh well, wait, this interview is about Indiana. Hey, Indiana, do you know what HOOSIER means in St. Louis?

You can pick up their latest thumper of an album over on their BANDCAMP page. Their latest album is their self-titled. If that's too serious for you, spend some time on their FACEBOOK instead.

So, see what it's all about below.

LP Review: "Deliquesce" by Maestus

Deliquesce

In the hopes of continuing to be a bit varied, lately Glacially Musical has been focusing on extreme metal bands and now it's heading back into the lighter side of metal.

Doom Metal is one of those many subgenres that's near and dear to my heart.

The best doom metal and this is an un-debatable point, is mellow, but it's flat out heavy.

Thick like molasses and just as hard to spread. Moving like a glacier...there we go, that's the right metaphor.

Enter Maestus.

This doom quintet hails from the wilds of Oregon. Their music has been described as an onslaught of granite. That's an exceptional description of what they're doing here. This album's got four tracks and fifty minutes of music.  Obviously, the songs are a bit on the long side.

It's melodic, angry, and full of latent frustration. The addition of keys and strings takes this band's music and puts them in very small company. Fans of Eye of Solitude might want to check in here.

Maestus is a difficult band to really describe. The best I can do is tell you they're a densely layered and excessively  heavy doom metal band that you should be listening to.

RELEASE 2/8/19 BANDCAMP AMAZON FACEBOOK

Split LP Review: "SPLIT" by Coltsblood and Un

Split

As a blogger, my personal opinions factor largely into what I cover.

As it was before, it is now, there are several bands, labels, etc that always catch my eye.

So, when scrambling to write, it's not uncommon to head back to those particulars to see what is available.

Translation Loss Records  is releasing another album by Un. Now this catches my attention. So, I pull out the email, boot up the promo and see that it's not an album, but listed as an EP.

Oh, it's also a split, with Un on the back end. This other band is leading the charge... Coltsblood? Dunno them.

I've listened to this split several times at this point, the first time, it was all about getting to that Un track, but more and more, Coltsblood is really growing on me. Both bands delivered twenty minute PLUS song. Based on quantity of songs, we're looking at a AA Single, but this is a full length record.

Coltsblood...they're doomy, but a bit more vivacious and attacking than our good friends from Seattle. This is probably the best match split I've heard in my life. The bands go together so very well.

Just go ahead and check this one out....

RELEASE ORDER COLTSBLOOD UN

LP Review: "Vol. 6" by Seer

Vol. 6

It should be so easy to pontificate why this album is such an amazing piece of art that how I can't go on about that fact for 500 words is really beginning to bother me.

My process for review isn't that different (if different at all) from others. First spend time listening to the music.

Second after the music makes sense, write about it.

Seer though, and this isn't my first write up on their spectacular music, is somewhat hard to tell you about.

The vocals are big, ambient, and perhaps a bit tortured.

Vol. 6 is somewhat different from its predecessors that I'm familiar with, namely volumes 1-4. There's an uncomfortablness to the guitars, a tremor, that gives them extra feeling.

Seer is the band that we all wished Baroness would've  had grown into. That's the best way to really explain it. I can say without fear of contradiction that Vol. 6 is the best musical output of their career.

The great news about that? It's being released on vinyl next month.

RELEASE 2/18/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Vinyl EP Review: "Burn Barrel" by Skin of Earth

Burn Barrel

Before the review proper, it's time to announce what's going on this week.

As you read this, it's Monday after 8am Central Standard Time and you're drinking coffee. (As I write this, it's Saturday at 9:17 Central Standard Time and I'm drinking coffee.)

Over recent weeks, it became apparent that I had a backlog of vinyl reviews to get out. (Including one I've been holding back for awhile now.)

As it's the holidays and we're leading up to the big daddy of them all, Saturnalia, it seemed important to me that all of these reviews were posted.

We're starting off with a bit of a rarity here. This album isn't officially released until New Year's Eve, but here I am holding my glorious copy.

Skin of Earth is giving us Burn Barrel via a very cool imprint, Sump Pump Records. (Do you folks outside of the Midwest even know what a sump pump is?)

DLP Review: "IV: Mythologiae" by Slow

It's been about a year since Slow came into my life. Their record, V: Oceans was an absolute game changer for me.

It's now time to check in on their followup, IV: Mythologiae. Wait. What?

So, this album was originally released in very small quantities a couple of years back, but due to a hard drive crash, most likely caused by gremlins or the use of Apple iProducts, it was lost.

So, this isn't a re-release of that record, but wholly re-recorded version of that album. IV gives us the gift of Slow's evolution in reverse.

IV is mellower. It has a calmness to it that it's successor doesn't have. It wouldn't be wrong to say that V is the payoff of IV. After IV ends, the anger has built and it manifests itself along the edges. This makes me wonder, what will VI be like?

Slow will never win any awards for originality. Their albums aren't genre bending tours de force that'll leave you wondering what you just heard. They are examples of atmospsheric doom metal perfected.

This is a band that's true to their name and they take it SLOOOOOOOW.

RELEASE 1/25/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

Split LP Reivew: "Rope Enough For Two" by Dayglo Mourning/Bludy Gyres

Rope Enough For Two

Recently, both Dayglo Mourning and Bludy Gyers spoke with me about various things, but today it's time to consider their music.

For starters, Rope Enough For Two is a split LP which is one of my personal favorite things. From a dollars perspective, it's a great value. An EP on vinyl and an LP usually cost the same. So, double your fun and get two bands.

Dayglo Mourning has an amazing name. It doesn't really describe the band. It evokes a jokey quality to me, and they're straight doom. This is the kind of doom metal that's so dirty, you can smell it.

Our unhappy friends, have three tracks over side one of the record. Now, it'd be improper to claim any sort of amazing renaissance of doom metal here. There's no revolution. They create an atmosphere. Which, when it comes to doom, what else is there to want?

The vocals are semi-shouted. The guitars have more fuzz than my cats. Then, there's the pacing. It's just slow enough to be plodding. This is the doom metal we're looking for.

Bludy Gyres takes a different path on their side of the Split. Instead of a three pack of songs, they chose to grind out one epic seventeen minute track.

It takes about five minutes for the song to get truly started. It starts with a low level explosion into some solo-ish guitar. It's gritty and never self-indulgent. Imagine Warning, but almost twice as long, and with way more of the band being involved.

The riff is a wobbly, reverby, swerve. If you try to move along to it, you'll probably get dizzy and hit your head on your desk. I'm not saying that happened to me, but still.

Then there's the crunchy chunks nestled in between the vocals and the swerve. But don't worry, that's the just beginning. Check it out.

RELEASE 12/7/18 BANDCAMP