Labels: self released
Review by: Kunal Nandi
This band defines doom for me. On a purely superficial level, it’s heavy as hell, with the guitar tone almost indistinguishable from the bass, tuned as low as possible without making the guitar bend in on itself. It’s loud too of course, as long as you allow for the low production values and whack up the volume knob (duh). And then it’s slow, almost agonisingly so, with a drummer from the Dale Crover (Melvins)-school of keeping perfect time whilst not hitting anything for seconds at a time. The music is simplicity itself, with plodding riffs repeated until everyone decides enough is enough. So far, so good, so what?
What Stone Golem have got in spades is the all important X-Factor “” atmosphere. There is real menace lurking behind this wall of sound. The singer has a truly hellish screech, which is buried deep in the mix for added spookiness. The tunes are actually very catchy, with a natural, organic flow to them, which is strange for this genre, where rewards are given for the most aural torture inflicted. Couple this with the enveloping dense feel and you have an extremely impressive couple of songs (and an instrumental). DOOOOOOOMMM!!!