The Last American Poet, Shane Beck, collaborates on this album with stoner/doom band Burial Beyond The Sea. I’m pleasantly surprised to see how well spoken-word balances with doom.
Ketoret are out of Israel and produce a sludge-laden doom. This release has only one track, but it’s a slow, lava-like 10 minutes of heavy rock.
This massively heavy release by Allysen Callery collaborating with doom monsters Mother Bear is appropriate for Halloween. From the release’s Bandcamp site:
“”Creep here with me, keep it close and you might see…the little things that glow…and they all have teeth…”
Something spooky this way comes!
Allysen Callery has joined supernatural forces with Germany’s Doom metal masters Mother Bear , for a delightfully dark offering presented by Gruselthon, sub label of Cosirecords.”
If you can imagine Shirley Collins with a slight stoner vibe, you’re coming close to the power of this release.
Though I’m not much of a metal guy, I have grown fond of things like desert rock, stoner rock, drone metal and other variants. The online label Weedian has been releasing free (or pay-what-you-like) compilations of bands in local scenes, and this one covers Germany in 62 tracks. Most of these bands are surprisingly good, and those of you into things like Saint Vitus or Black Sabbath will find plenty to enjoy in this album.
Our beloved friends from Israel, Zeresh, have collaborated with Italian project Albireon for an apocalyptic doom-folk classic. Considering the state of the world, I choose that word advisedly.
This album has something special to it because so many parties come together and work seamlessly, something rare for a split album. The music is both spacious and claustrophobic at the same time, as the tones are dark, a bit creepy and haunting. This would compare rather well to the early acoustic forays into folk that Current 93 took decades ago, though with a gloomier feel about it.
Take, for instance, the first track of the compilation, which has Albireon pairing together with Zeresh chanteuse Tamar Singer in a psychedelic folk romp that would evoke memories of the legendary Comus, or my fellow American friends Changes, to those listeners who are over 50 or really deep into progressive-folk. To you younger readers, click on that Comus link. It’s worth your time learning about them. Albireon’s contributions are sparse acoustic settings which would be quite a treat for neofolk fans.
Zeresh add something quite different in their contribution. This is more akin to acid folk, specifically the sorts of things which have been on my playlist like Masaki Batoh’s Ghost and Kikagaku Moyo, with instrumental work done in tandem with Michael Zolotov of Kadaver.
The split is dark, gloomy, but all the better for it. Doom-folk should not evoke rainbows.
虚极 (Bliss-Illusion) are a band based in China who have caused quite a sensation all across the world of Black Metal. The music is a combination of the aforementioned Black Metal but adding a twist by mixing post-rock, straight-ahead metal, elements of doom, shoegaze and what they term to be folk-metal. If you’re sensitive to screaming vocals, you might want to sit this one out, but it works rather well with the music.