Busy, busy days here in the Swamp, lately, but I must set aside some time to care for my little Swamplings, oh yes. Skepticism's Stormcrowfleet is debatably the first "funeral doom" album ever. Doubling the minimalism and measure slowness of their forbears, from Black Sabbath to Candlemass, Skepticism added heavy organ, mallet-played marching drums, and mystical chanting, effectively creating their own sub-genre and pushing the outer fringes of heavy metal into strange, ominous territory. Resonating at once blasphemous and pious, timber-rattlingly loud and subtly beautiful, Stormcrowfleet is a must for fans of Thergothon, Moss, Catacombs, and the like, even though none of those bands sound quite like this one.At the swamps
Mist is rising
Love this record. It sounds like it's being played through a head cold. I've been listening to it for a number of years now but somehow hadn't managed to listen to anything else Skepticism had done until a couple of weeks ago when I finally checked out Alloy which is also really excellent and even almost sort of kind of upbeat.
ReplyDeleteI've been less blown away with some of their other work but I've not heard Alloy. Thanks for the heads-up, Graeme.
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