Snailking - Storm
Something exciting is happening in the doom metal world. Earlier in the year the new Conan album Blood Eagle came out to universal acclaim, for it's pushing of doom metal boundaries, and more recently Yob have been selling out venues on their UK tour with Pallbearer; and the coverage of doom metal seems on the increase across the metal magazine world, including of course our own Room Thirteen. This is all before we get to the eagerly anticipated new album Time to Die from Electric Wizard, due out later this month.
We should add to that excitement, the new album Storm from Sweden's three piece Snailking. It's a killer album that further raises our expectations of what doom metal and sludge can deliver!
The album cover sets the tone, with its bare jagged trees caught in a storm, and a lonely house on the hill shrouded in darkness, and lit by a single light from one of the rooms. It's hugely atmospheric, as is the amazing music on this album!
To Wonder, the opener, begins with the sound of unrelenting rain, heavy chords, and then a nicely melodic slow build on guitar and drums. The full force of the band is then unleashed on a riff that is sonically both melancholic and intensely physical. The vocals come in about half way into the track, and in their desperate pleas remind you of nothing less than the Scream by the expressionist artist Edvard Munch. This is doom metal at the cutting edge, challenging your imagination to the limit.
Requiem is the masterpiece at the heart of this great album. Shimmering guitar melodies and jazz like bass and drum counterpoints, pull you into the song. Spaces, are also left in the music, which feels radical and risky, almost provoking the listener's capacity to immerse themselves fully, or lose touch with the music. The slow hypnotic nature of the main guitar motif is astonishing, made even more so by the splashing cymbal based sound scape and jagged bass that envelops it. Even the guitar feedback later in the song, sounds like it has been expertly scored to fit the mood. This is complex and emotionally demanding music.
The final track Void has a title that well describes this songs emotional impact. The almost blunted sound of the opening guitar strumming and percussion, creates a frisson of real emptiness. When the band hits it's stride with a fuller doom sound, it's almost a relief and release.
This is a serious and visionary suite of songs, that shows what doom, and metal more generally, is capable of achieving at its best.
It truly deserves the top thirteen rating!