Album Type: Full Length
Date
Released: 14/04/2017
Label: Independent
The tone, mix and mood of the album is one
of darkness, menace and depression. “II: Vanishing” will terrify your
consciousness and haunt your soul into painful contortions
“II:
Vanishing” DD track listing:
1).
Hunter’s Moon
2).
Vanishing
3).
Blood and Stone
4).
No Name, No Marker
5).
The Vigil
The Review:
Longhouse is a three piece doom
outfit from Ottawa , Canada
Second
track, “Vanishing,” comes in like a
rabid lioness on the hunt. Its raw energy and strategic prowess, attack with
vengeful aggression right from the opening blast. The heaviness and groove are
the driving force that grabs you immediately and does not let up its grip for
over six minutes until the very last note is played. This song is the highlight
of the album for me, with the opener being a close second. Third track, “Blood and Stone” sounds exactly like
its title. It is grimy, slimy, barbaric, and ugly. Some nice guitar soloing
elevate the song to the next level which the preceding groove and harmony had
already come close to achieving on their own.
Fourth
track, “No Name, No marker,” is
another nonstop drive fest. As with the previous track, this one has all the
groove and harmony but with a noticeably more melancholic delivery. The end of
the song breaks into an intoxicatingly heavy chug riff which eventually fades
us off into the netherworld. With the final track of the album, “The Vigil,” the band pulls out its
secret weapon; the game changer that are the clean vocals. The sombre beginning
breaks into a quintessential classic metal riff in which the clean vocals
immediately jump out of the speakers at you completely unexpectedly. Throughout
the song we get a great mix of clean and gruff vocals without ever using either
one in excess. This is a truly remarkable feat of a perfect combination that
very few bands in the history of heavy metal have been able to pull off in my
opinion, yet Longhouse
seems to be able to execute this very task with minimal effort and I think it
was a stroke of genius to wait until the last song of the album in which to do
it.
I
really enjoyed listening to this album. It feels to be the perfect length and
displays a good amount of musicianship, especially with the guitars. The
soloing and overlaying of harmonies are exquisite throughout the entire album.
The tone of mix and mood of the album are above all dark and brooding,
depressing, and bolstered with a straightforward and ever driving rhythm
section. I can detect hints of bands like Pallbearer, High On Fire, and even some Type O Negative,
all mixed together with an abundance of the vast Canadian outback which I was
more than happy to stir well and swallow down, and I am very much looking
forward to hearing what this band does next.
“II: Vanishing” is available here
