By: Andre Almaraz
Album Type: EP
Date Released: 12/05/2017
Label: Independent |
Black
Bow Records
If you’re a fan of heavy sludge, doom, and death/doom, I don’t see
how you could possibly not dig this album. The production is amazing and the
tone is ultra-heavy. The drums pound mercilessly, the bass hits like a 50 pound
maul, and the vocals pull it all together perfectly. Give this a listen now.
“Beneath” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1).
Guile As A Vice
2).
Succumbing
The Review:
Up
for review here is “Beneath,” the new
2017 album by Melbourne, Australia’s Merchant, which is
brought to us by in part (digitally) by the mighty Black Bow Records.
The album consists of only two tracks, but each one is almost fifteen minutes
in length so rest assured that there is no skimping on the sludge soaked
riffage that lies within the recording.
The
album opens with the appropriately titled “Guile
As A Vice,” which begins with some chattering feedback and then quickly
gives way to a solitary guitar strumming some somber yet powerful chords.
Before long, the drums and bass kick in and all is well with the world as the
syrupy groove grabs a hold of your soul and moves your bones in agreeable
unison to the soothing sounds….
But
then suddenly, after we’ve grooved out for about 5 minutes, the mood changes,
the vocals chime in, and just like that, things aren’t so smooth and syrupy any
longer. Now is the time when the vicious vocals spew forth their venom all over
our speakers like a sludge bomb going off in our faces and coating our remains
in a cryptic slurry. The track surges and then slows until we are taken by force
into a lumbering, crawling pace. Drums
pound and vocals wail away as duress and despair are the feelings evoked from
here on out by the rhythmic repetition and droning guitars which set the tone
for this ungodly apocalypse. As the song comes to an abrupt end, we are left
feeling as if a great burden has been lifted from our chests.
Enter
track two; “Succumbing,” which
indeed, I feel as if we already have. Havoc, hatred, and hopelessness pound us
into the ground from the opening blast. This song does not care to spend any
time easing us into the assault as was the modus operandi of the first one.
Again, tempos ebb and flow while never losing sight of their groove; an
admirable feat of musical dynamics. Billowing clouds of guitars waft over us
like we’re drowning in a sea of sanguine serenity. We have no choice but the
let the waves wash over us and pull us under the swirling tide. After almost
ten minutes, the barrage gradually slows to the bitter end as amplifier hum and
whirling feedback drift us out into the eerie unknown.
If
you’re a fan of heavy sludge, doom, and death/doom, I don’t see how you could
possibly not dig this album. The production is amazing and the tone is
ultra-heavy. The drums pound mercilessly, the bass hits like a 50 pound maul,
and the vocals pull it all together perfectly. Give this a listen now.
