When it comes to being burned out, Sundowner are very nearly religious about it. The Australian sludge band take an over-the-top approach to nihilism and despondency, instilling a mystic quality in their deep-rooted antipathy. As you listen to their new album Lysergic Ritual, which we’re streaming here ahead of its 4/20 release date (because, of course), let the album’s harsh approach to riffy sludge tap into your wellspring of negativity. It’s okay to feel bad, Lysergic Ritual says, offering up some of the worst stuff the world has to offer as proof. … SUNDOWNER · Lysergic Ritual … While you ..read more

Ixion has always been a band that applies their chosen subject matter of science fiction more broadly than most. They make their stories vast and their scope grand, and then position their deeply personal music against these backdrops as if arraying them to heighten the contrast. Though the French band explores the cosmos through atmospheric doom metal, they do so while remaining intensely emotional and always inquisitive. Their newest project is a sort of meta-album, Evolution, that looks at humanity’s fate alongside the rise of androids. The first part of this work, the Extinction EP,  ..read more

Consistency is not the same thing as stagnancy, and Acid Mammoth is the proof. There are three things one should expect from an Acid Mammoth album: one, the album art is going to have something mammoth-y on it, two, there’s going to be riffs, and three–well, there’s going to be a lot of riffs. Each album they’ve released has fit this criteria and been its own, monstrous entity without any hints of trite repetition. The Grecian doom titans have staved off the extinct fate of their namesake by giving the people what they want with a distinct lack of filler or unwanted gimmicks, and their legacy ..read more

Chicago progressive doom metal group Huntsmen has announced a new album, The Dry Land, coming later this year via Prosthetic Records. It’s been four years since they put out the Mandala of Fear 2LP [check out our right-before-COVID video interview from 2020], with a short EP (The Dying Pines) in the meantime, and so a new record is very welcome. Every release has seen the eclectic band further evolve into one of the most adventurous and dynamic bands in Chicago (and we have a lot of those), staying true to their core melodic heaviness while always bringing something new and unexpected to the t ..read more

Doom metal has always been a bit of a melting pot of a genre, and cross-pollination is more than welcome in the lands of slow riffs and overdriven amplifiers. Saltpig is the strange resulting flower of one such collaboration, with vocalist multi-instrumentalist Mitch Davis (who’s worked with LA Guns, Damon Albarn, and others) joining forces with ex-Annihilator drummer Fabio Alessandrini to create something that sounds like none of any of that. Rooted in low-fidelity, garage-brewed stoner rock and proto-metal, Saltpig’s debut self-titled album explores B-movie style occult horror through catchy ..read more

International traditional doom fiends Friends of Hell are set to return with their second album God Damned You To Hell, the follow-up to their eponymous debut two years ago. We interviewed the band and premiered a track from their album back then, and there have been some large-scale changes in their roster since then. Out are vocalist Albert Witchfinder and guitarist Jondix, leaving drummer Tas Danazoglou and bassist Taneli Jarva to find new members. Luckily, replacing them are metal lifers Nifelheim frontman Hellbutcher, Mirror guitarist Sprits Moutafis, and Brazilian guitarist Beelzeebubth ..read more

Sons of Ra have long melded Chicago’s heavy, weird musical inclinations with deeply creative jazz fusion, but only rarely have they put it to tape. Four years after Cognitive, the band returns with a new EP, Tropic of Cancer, a striking mix of piercing and exploratory instrumental music. While the Tropic of Cancer is technically a geographical measurement on the Earth’s surface related to the Sun’s movement, Tropic of Cancer finds inspiration in life’s movements down here on Earth — founding member Erik Oldman relocated to Chicago in 1998 from Austin as he underwent treatment for Hodgkin’s Lym ..read more

In the skilled hands of Altar of Betelgeuze, doom metal is but simple putty to be shaped and transformed. Although the Finnish band deserve praise for how they meld multiple doom subgenres into a coherent approach, what stands out the most is how they create dynamics and motion while staying true to their two core tenets: being heavy, and being slow. Without resorting to disjointed tropes or throwing in oddball songs, their new album Echoes is a consistently enjoyable jam that blends inventive, iconic riffs with a passion for slow, overbearing doom metal. With a noxious pot of stoner, death, a ..read more

Power and grace seem equally important in crafting melodic death and doom metal, and Angmodnes is not lacking in either capacity. The mysterious Dutch outfit (another offspring of Utrecht‘s potent scene) is set to deliver their debut album Rot of the Soul, a dose of sorrowful extreme metal that’s as poignant in its weighted silences as it is at its heaviest. It’s a record that’s incredibly personal in some ways, especially lyrically, and derives a lot of its sound from layering clean vocals together, both ethereal and direct. At the same time, even the opening track “Beneath” is in possession ..read more

Isenordal first wowed me on their 2019 tour with Void Omnia, which was now over four years ago (hard to believe). This Pacific Northwest doom collective’s neofolk and black metal inspired funeral doom hymns brought the downstairs SubTerranean bar venue in Chicago to a hushed and reverent silence. Now ready to unveil their third album, titled Requiem for Eirênê, Isenordal reveals further depth of their already emotive and subdued blackened doom. “Await Me, Ultima Thule” is an exercise in beauty and pain, guided by dense melodicism, subterranean heaviness, and the furthest dynamic reaches made p ..read more