Old Man Gloom / Christmas
Album: Christmas   Collection:General
Artist:Old Man Gloom   Added:Dec 2004
Label:Tortuga Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2005-01-09 Pull Date: 2005-03-13 Charts: Loud
Week Ending: Feb 27 Feb 20 Feb 13 Feb 6 Jan 30 Jan 16
Airplays: 1 2 2 2 1 1

Recent Airplay
1. Feb 23, 2005: The Sun Never Sets On Cool
Close Your Eyes, Roll Back I
4. Feb 10, 2005: Baptism of Solitude
Gift
2. Feb 17, 2005: Baptism of Solitude
Valhalla
5. Feb 09, 2005: The Sun Never Sets On Cool
Valhalla
3. Feb 16, 2005: The Sun Never Sets on Cool
Gift
6. Feb 03, 2005: Baptism of Solitude
Gift

Album Review
Ragnar of Ravensfjord
Reviewed 2005-01-03
Despite the album title and songs called “Gift” and “Christmas Eve” this has nothing to do with the holidays. However, it IS a nice collection of ambient, noise and the ever epic & powerful Neurosis/Isis vibe.
((((1)))) Opens with acoustic guitars strumming and mellow choral voices then BURSTS into downtuned, winding doomed slowness. GREAT riffage for sure!
((((2)))) Noisy, distorted & rather short heavy modern hardcore with just a pinch of metal (not the other way around, thankfully).
((((3)))) Droney, ambient noise perfect for a horror movie!
(((((4))))) Weird riff that seems to bridge AC/DC with Neurosis (in that it almost sounds like “For Those About To Rock”) then suddenly becomes Neurosis mixed with old Cave In and Entombed playing at half speed.
((5)) Buzzing, household appliance-like noise. Kinda annoying but eventually features some nice guitars and a more ambient sound.
((((6)))) Is Willam Sims in the house? Total Jesus Lizard bass action mixed with totally downtuned fuzzed out death/doom metal jumping back to the Jesus Lizard parts.
((((7)))) More creepy ambience & other agents of sonic disturbances. Not too far from Coil or even mid-period Current 93.
((((8)))) More Jesus Lizard/Fugazi type of riffing, spoken voice, spacey bass & tribal drumming ‘ala Neurosis. Successfully manages to mix fucked up David Yow (Jesus Lizard) styled vocals with Neurosis-like otherworldly structures.
((((9)))) Wonderful, psychedelic, mellow acoustic strumming with a hypnotist giving instructions. Trippy, kinda like early 70’s psych, man!
((((10)))) Off-kilter, guitar & drums ‘ala Jesus Lizard, Fugazi then breaks into LOUD as FUCK hardcore d-beat tempo with total wretched (in a good way) near death metal, low-level vocals.
((((11)))) Beautiful, dreamy acoustic guitar strumming.
((((12)))) The title speaks wonders and of course it’s the one of the BEST songs on the friggin’ album. LOUD, winding DOOM metal/DOOM core with a BRILLIANT groove throughout. Onward to Valhalla! Ends with a giant sheet of distorted fuzz.
((((13)))) Epic piece mixing minimal drone, beautiful ambiences & more psychedelic acoustic strums and it ends like some sort of unreleased Ash Ra Temple thing.

Track Listing
1. Gift   7. Accord-O-Matic
2. Skullstorm   8. The Volcano
3. Something for the Mrs.   9. Close Your Eyes, Roll Back I
4. Sleeping with Snakes   10. Girth and Greed
5. Lukeness Monster   11. Sonic Dust
6. 'tis Better to Recieve   12. Valhalla
  13. Christmas Ev E Pts. 1-3