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 […]
Tag: doom
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 […]
Neptunian Maximalism deliver a funeral rite for the human species
Neptunian Maximalism’s recent triple album, Éons, imagines a future Earth dominated by hyperintelligent elephants.
Vile Creature embrace resistance and power amid despair on Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!
The new third full-length from Canadian doom duo Vile Creature, Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!, is everything I hoped it would be. The queer vegan band, formed in 2014, draw their fierce, efficient, and elegant rage from their experiences of oppression and resistance, and they use it to build strong support structures for their bursts […]
Two of Chicago’s rising dark rock groups collaborate in the studio and onstage
It would be worth an outing to the Empty Bottle just to see two of the most compelling bands Chicago has produced in recent years on one bill. Dark postrock trio Lume entered the fray last year with their full-length debut, Wrung Out (Equal Vision), a raw, emotional, and cinematically dreary work that examines loss […]
Thirty years on, Doom are still untouchable at miserable, nihilistic crust punk
English hardcore band Doom came together in 1987 in Birmingham, channeling much of the same grimy, industrial misery as their hometown allies Black Sabbath, Napalm Death, and Godflesh. Spending their initial three-year run pioneering the genre of extreme crust punk, Doom produced an explosive, flawless 1988 debut LP, War Crimes: Inhuman Beings, which set the […]
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.
Buried at Sea celebrate the reissue of Migration with their second Chicago show in ten years
Chicago drone-doom veterans Buried at Sea play Wednesday at Reggie’s to support a new release of their only full-length album.
Öxxö Xööx look like metalhead Na’vi and sound like heirs to Magma
French band Öxxö Xööx play convoluted riffs, sing in an invented language, and paint themselves blue.
Bay Area doom-metal throwbacks Orchid release the Sign of the Witch EP tomorrow
Orchid hail from deep in the hazy realm of bell-bottoms, black-light posters, custom vans, and amplifier cabinets large enough to sleep in.
Virginia trio Foehammer debut with ten minutes of tar-pit doom metal about Gandalf
On Foehammer’s debut EP, doom metal and The Lord of the Rings go together like chocolate and peanut butter.
Dutch doom band Izah unveils a lush, bleak debut LP nine years in the making
“Indefinite Instinct” is this band’s first released track from Sistere, which comes out next week.
Italian psychedelic-doom sorcerers Ufomammut tease their new album with ‘Temple’
Narcotically heavy, tail-swallowing grooves from Ufomammut’s forthcoming Ecate
Take a ‘Walk ov Shame’ to the Local Option for the Catalina Wine Mixer
This fruity Belgian-style saison is one of 31 beautiful beers the Local Option will be pouring all night.
Weekend Nachos ready the release of their new LP, open for Obituary
Local powerviolence band Weekend Nachos release new songs from their insanely heavy new LP, Still.