Observance

Boulder CO band: Self-described “Death Sludge” (bandcamp) if I have to use labels I like to think of this as Bleak Doom Black Noise Metal. The black comes from the HUGE hollow near atmospherics (not wary of reverb) and long form epic symphonic opuses typified by soaring guitar work, the Sludge is obvious, crawling on ones knees to a terrible deflowering a la Salo 120 days of Sodom, Noise because theres nuclear grade primo dark noise drone involved in this, and metal just cuz, cuz metal is heavy, not hair sprayed. This band scratches the itch that altogether may have driven one to Wolves in the Throne room, Scratch Acid, while swearing an oath hand on the Bible that is the SWANS COP 12”. I consider this a new revival of sorts, bands mixing up all things mentioned above with a healthy dose of drone and heavy noise (see also Dispirit, Dragged into Sunlight, Panzerfaust, The Body). As a lover of heavy music since age 9 (Zep, Deep Purple, Sabbath, Jimi) I havent been this excited about the genre since Black Flag warped my reality live in ‘82. Speaking of Noise every song on this has some form of intro/outro or bed. These are the creations of the guitarist, who goes by Many Blessings and offers his noise only project on bandcamp. Primo stuff. FCCs track 6.

1) (7:18) skull crushing head nodding intro to 2/4 old school hardcore punk beat (1980 think China White) but slathered in the aforementioned bleak dark distillate, downshifting to the crawling.
2) (11:46) begins with Many Blessing dark drone noise, then a slow plodding bass led bleak blackness, enters, the slow Raping a Slave (Swans) plod, and a soaring symphonic feel toward end, oh jesus, you are my only….god.
3) (13:53) this gives Michael Gira a bare bottomed spanking teaching swans how to doom sludge crawl. The scene where the girls are in a big cauldron of you know what comes to mind (please dont see that movie)
4) (1:52) The Noise You Need. Need. You Need. The Noise
5) (14:01) begins with a bare bottomed pounding of Michael Gira’s backside, falls into a deep septic tank, crawls out into daylight, leaves us confused
6) FCC obscene if I heard the words “cunt” right. No safe harbor
7) (9:04) a final crushing of any remaining intact skeletal structure one might have, a shallow grave, if kicking dirt upon us counts as such, maybe even a golden shower upon our pitiful final resting place