When Elder emerged in Massachusetts in the mid-2000s, they worshiped at the altar of stoner-doom heavyweights such as Sleep and Eyehategod. But in the years since, they’ve emerged from behind the weed to establish a voice of their own. By their fifth LP, 2020’s Omens, most of the band had relocated to Berlin, and as […]
Tag: doom metal
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Michigan grindpunks Cloud Rat push beyond their limits on Threshold
Michigan trio Cloud Rat have grown steadily from their solid grindcore foundations into one of the most boundary-pushing outfits in a generation of heavy punk-driven bands. They’ve put out more than 20 releases since forming in 2009, but this prolificacy hasn’t been accompanied by a holding pattern in their songwriting—their records feel increasingly packed with […]
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Temple of Void delve into the abyss on the genre-bending Summoning the Slayer
Death metal gets stereotyped as a one-trick pony, but plenty of bands in the genre are thoughtfully breaking the mold. In the midwest, they include Michigan death-doom outfit Temple of Void. Formed in 2013 by veterans of Detroit’s metal and hardcore scenes, the five-piece have earned accolades for their gritty, genre-bending albums—in 2020, The World […]
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Swedish doom-metal pioneers Candlemass celebrate their epic sounds in Chicago
If you love modern doom, you owe a debt of gratitude to Candlemass. Formed in Stockholm in 1984, the group were among a handful of early purveyors of the slow, down-tuned, and monumentally forlorn heavy form of metal inspired by Black Sabbath. In fact, their 1986 debut album, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, helped establish the genre’s […]
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Chicago’s Huntsmen delve deeper into their lush metal storytelling on The Dying Pines
Huntsmen’s distinctive, delicious sound mixes turbocharged gothic country with sophisticated, dynamic doom metal wrapped in horror-tinged Americana atmospheres. Following two EPs, 2014’s Post War and 2016’s The Colonel, the Chicago band received rave reviews for their 2018 debut full-length, American Scrap. Their epic 80-minute concept album Mandala of Fear, about a battle-scarred veteran trying to […]
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Everson Poe’s powerful vision focuses the expansive metal of The Night Country
Chicago multi-instrumentalist Mae Shults began self-releasing heavy rock laced with doom metal under the name Everson Poe in 2009. In the ensuing years, she’s moved deeper into metal, amplifying her ambitious, cinematic vision with its grim cacophony and outsize theatricality. Last year’s Grief, for example, closes with “Acceptance,” whose oceanically distorted guitars and minimal, thundering […]
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Stander masters moods and dynamics on their second full-length, Vulnerable
This year promises to be a big one for the Garrote, a new record imprint and publishing house founded in the Quad Cities by Aseethe guitarist-singer Brian Barr and photographer-videographer Josh Ford, who’s worked with bands such as Sunn O))), High on Fire, and Facs. The Garrote has a stacked release schedule for 2022, starting […]
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On their first album in seven years, Anatomy of Habit continue turning over new stones
It’s been ten years since Chicago collective Anatomy of Habit released their first record, and a lot has changed since then. Anchored by front man Mark Solotroff, the band came out of the gate with long, complex, layered songs that blend doomy metal, Swans-style noise rock, bleak postpunk, heavy drones, and hypnotic guitar-looping acrobatics. It’s […]
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Austin doom outfit Monte Luna takes their dazed and heavy doom on the road
In 2016, Austin doom unit Monte Luna dropped their debut demo—a self-titled release with just one self-titled track more than 20 minutes long—and just a few months later followed it with their powerful first EP, The Hound. These served as appetizers for their self-titled 2017 full-length debut, which exuded confidence and showcased a trippy heaviness […]
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Doom-metal pioneer Eric Wagner has left our plane too soon
Modern digital avenues for music discovery can make it hard to remember what “underground” used to mean. Before the Internet, underground music was hard to find and often hard to even know about—and that amplified its significance for the outcasts who loved it. In the mid-80s, when speed was king in heavy music, a small […]
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Japan’s Coffins share their stench on rarities compilation Defilements
On the new double-disc compilation Defilements, long-running Japanese band Coffins solder together a patchwork of death and doom metal from five out-of-print releases that trace their development throughout the 2010s. Coffins spike the collection with covers of iconic American groups such as Death and Buzzoven, faithfully executing each homage, and their original tracks simply swing. […]
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Gothic doom masters Paradise Lost get eclectic on Obsidian
British five-piece Paradise Lost had already helped pioneer death-doom by the time they put out their second album, 1991’s Gothic, and laid groundwork for subsequent generations of bands that combined metal’s harshness with dark, romantic textures. They’ve since gone through nearly as many drummers as Spinal Tap, but the rest of the lineup—vocalist Nick Holmes, […]
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Chicago’s Plague of Carcosa make dense, cosmic-horror doom
Carcosa is a mysterious fictional city first named by author Ambrose Bierce in 1886 and later alluded to in Robert W. Chambers’s influential and evocative King in Yellow stories. As the ancient and possibly cursed capital of an alien place that’s impossible to pinpoint on earthly maps, it’s been incorporated into the works of H.P. […]
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Admission is the best record yet from ‘thunder pop’ forefathers Torche
Miami band Torche have always been like heavy metal’s cotton candy, and their recent fifth album, July’s Admission (Relapse), is their most delicious yet. Since rising from the ashes of stoner-rock group Floor in 2004, Torche have specialized in what they call “thunder pop”—a hard-hitting, wall-of-sound brand of sludgy doom metal that’s topped off with […]
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Queer doom duo Vile Creature don’t have time for ‘melted dickwads’
Vile Creature make a lot of metal for just two people, with great melodies and a supremely satisfying guitar tone—and they play Chicago on Friday night.