#ATMOSPHERIC SLUDGE

[onlyhurtforaminute]

SOOTHSAYER-WAR OF THE DOVES

[doomanddead]

Mairu’s Sol Cultus Sizzles

The dog days of summer are uncertain times. It’s hard to concentrate when Sirius rises and the world is sizzling. Even my cozy little canyon feels unnaturally humid and still. The newest offering from Liverpool quartet Mairu feels like the perfect soundtrack to get us through these torpid days. Their album Sol Cultus is packed with languorous post-metal instrumentals and slow, doomy riffs. It’s too fucking hot to mince words, so let’s get into it.

The album opens on Torch Bearer. This track toys with tension— sometimes laid back and ponderous, and sometimes taught with nervous strumming. The hammering heartbeat of the drums keeps things moving forward. The shining, ecstatic crescendo is a brain freeze in the Sahara. 

Perihelion is a pensive beast. It manages to sound simultaneously cavernous and warm. The song is grim but oddly buoyant, and makes for some damn good metal.

Still and fragile interludes like Inter Alia give the longer pieces on this album room to breathe.

The band’s 2019 single Wild Darkened Eyes sounds better than ever here. The track is furious and haunting with a groove that pounds its way to the finish. 

Drummer Ben Davis rattles our brains with a hypnotic performance on The Scattering Dust. Heavy, wandering baselines and acrid riffs give this track a perilous undertone. 

Atar is built from imposing slabs of percussion, and grouted with heaping globs of intensity. Cave-man beats lead the way; the rest of the band crashes in after, like the Kool-Aid man on roids. 

Where Atar was pounding and insistent, Rites of Ember is ethereal and melancholy. Clocking in at nearly ten and a half minutes, this behemoth moves at its own pace. Fervor creeps in like the tide until we’re up to our necks in a frothing mass. Just as we’re in danger of being overtaken, the tide turns and washes out again. 

Mairu seems right at home in the doldrums of summer, deftly manipulating tone and mood to glide through the thick atmosphere. Pick up Sol Cultus, and slip into the thrall of post-doom oblivion. 

[panzertranse]

Isis- Weight

[haveyouheardthisband]

[womenovmetal]

Ari May Jenna Garcia Rah Kanan

Faetooth

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Own A Car • Croatan • Golden Stair • Overnight • Sanibel • Windowpane • Haruspex • Dinah

YouTube

[vitamin-sea-mia]

🤘🏽 Cult Of Luna - The Watchtower

[von-vom]

[raksh-writes]

Gosh, this sudden change in weather has absolutely wrecked me, Im so damn useless I can barely sit straight, not to mention any type of thesis writing or anything similar ;_;

Guess it's time to take a forced break and let my brain slush around my skull like the sludge it has turned into, ughh

[heavyambientenby]

Drug Honkey - Death Dub

Atmospheric/Experimental Death/Doom Metal.

Gives me early Godflesh vibes, though even slower. The album features elements of what I believe is "Dub" music, so it's got that extra hit of immersion.

[doomedandstoned]

AINU Paint Compelling Post-Doom Landscape on Self-Titled Debut

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

AINU is a welcome new name to us, a three-piece heavy cinematic psychedelic post-doom powerhouse from Genoa, Italy (where many a band has popped onto our radar over the years, most recently Isaak). Here emerges today five soundscapes of the instrumental variety, part of the explosion in instrumental rock and metal that has emerged in recent years. The album is 'Ainu' (2024) which, besides being the name for the indigenous peoples of northern Japan, means simply "human."

First track is the stormy "Il Faro," which takes its name from The Lighthouse and appears to quote from an Italian language version of the 2019 film in its opening minutes. While I may not understand the dialogue, I can tell that there's a lot of passion and fluster in the words, and contrasts with a backdrop of eastern drone and psychedelic post-metal atmosphere, gathering like massive rain clouds.

The full band drops its weight two-minutes in and caught away in a swell. From the get-go we notice Ainu is a band that's quite confident in itself as an instrumental unit. The collaboration between Dani on guitar, Jacco on bass, and Gelso on drums is tight. Each instrument is deftly captured on this recording, the bass in particular has lots of clarity and plenty of oomph. It rewards listening with earphones, especially, but you can open up your speakers with this one and give the benefit of a full room -- the sound will claim it all. Listen for a key moment of transition 5:20 in with a warm, doomy bassline.

In many ways, this 12:43 piece mirrors a day on ocean's cliffs overlooking the waters and experiencing moments that are turbulent, mysterious, and serene. It is indeed cinematic in its vision, and this applies in many ways to the evolving scenes that follow.

Likewise, second track "Aiutami A Ricordare" (which means "Help Me Remember") generates big, rumbling sound in the service of a broad tapestry (it also makes its big splash around 5 minute mark with swinging bombast.

"D.E.V.S." and "Khrono" (the latter featuring guest musicians Francesco Bucci and Giorgio Nattero) reference the American science fiction thriller television miniseries D.E.V.S. and samples from the show here and there. The first two-minute track begins with surreal and calming ambience, but soon errupt into second -- a strumming, churning, tremelo-filled current. It's easy to get swept away in the momentum.

Whether you're listening intently, riding, or doing something else around the house, these songs always find a way to pull you into their moods, and here it is serious, searching, and tumultuous. "Krono" ("Time") ends with some of that broad, brash tossing back and forth Yob energy.

"Call Of The Sea," while not the longest, is certainly one of the more ambitious of the record and closes this cinquefoil journey out. The band takes time to build the story, and one could picture themselves picturing the landscape from a seagull's view. After three-and-a-half minutes of development comes the brake-squeaking dissonance announcing a transition, which comes with cymbals, watery reverberating strings, and a bass riff which you almost want to go on forever. It's Bongripper worthy stuff, but not meant to a barnstormer here, just enough gravity to keep our feet planted while our heads sail far above with the whirling, misty ambience of echoing loops and Lili Refrain's remarkable guest vocals. It's not really important to know what words she is singing, so much as to experience it, for it is beautiful and enchanting.

Ainu's self-titled debut comes out June 28th via Subsound Records on vinyl, compact disc, and digital format (get it here).

Give ear...

Ainu by Ainu

SOME BUZZ

'Ainu' is a concept record that moves between powerful and stirring soundscapes, building up at a slow but steady pace between psychedelia and post-metal, stemming from the Genoa trio’s passion for cinema and their close relationship with the sea, its stories and creatures.

Featuring special appearances from Lili Refrain as well as Francesco Bucci (Ottone Pesante) and Giorgio Nattero (Carcharodon), this album is an intense, emotionally dense experience that uses the descriptive foundations of seamen and the calls of huge animals to recall the connection between the sound and the environment. An electrifying and contemplative journey for the heart and soul of heavy music lovers.

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[werregat]

(plug) ATTENTION ALL METALHEADS, GOTHS, RIVETHEADS, PUNKS

I don't normally do things like this especially on a blog that virtually as nothing to do with music, but it would really mean a lot to me if you guys could follow my Spotify!!! I'm tryna build a following on there for fun, and I follow back ;) I'd love to see what others are into music wise as is it one of my biggest passions and favorite things to do with ppl, so feel free to follow if you would like whether you're into the same music or not! no pressure of course 💚⚙️

[spechblend]

Really fucking with this song by Quiet Man. Really good almost atmospheric sludge/doom metal.

[haveyouheardthisband]

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

(515) • People = Shit • Disasterpiece • My Plague • Everything Ends • The Heretic Anthem • Gently • Left Behind • The Shape • I Am Hated • Skin Ticket • New Abortion • Metabolic • Iowa

Spotify ♪ Youtube