Tag: doom rock

Worship of Keres – Bloodhounds for Oblivion [2016; self-released]

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On what seems to be the band’s first release (since removed from their BandCamp), Worship of Keres turn out three tracks (”Book 1″, “Book 2″, and “Book 3″) of sludgy heavy metal, with the main distinguishing point being the lightly-fuzzed female vocals.  Aside from that, the grumbling riffs and heavy beats, though competent, don’t do much to arouse excitement.  The splitting of the songs also seems almost cosmetic, as the tunes are highly similar to each other, outside of a mid-way pick-up into soloing in “Book 2″, but it does help chunk them into more digestible sizes.  Not that enticing, despite some fun ideas in the more psychedelic leanings, but as a first EP, not too bad.

Aleph Null – Belladonna [2013; self-released]

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On their second EP, the German group of Aleph Null assemble four tracks of sludgy metal, veering about on the edges of hard rock, heavy metal, psychedelic, and doom.  While they hit some good groove stretches, it’s hard to shake the impression of the tracks being mostly experiments for the band to feel out their dynamics, without having much direction or focus in what they’re putting out.  Their most effective song on the EP is also their shortest, with the ~3-minute “Gagarin” building on explorations of an acoustic riff while keeping its scope concise.  For fans of the band looking for extra material, it’s a nice little set, but even at under half an hour in duration, it feels like the first half of the EP could have been cut without losing much value.