Having a force as formidable as Tad Doyle fronting Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth is obviously worth noting, but anyone expecting the thumping familiarity of TAD may be surprised at how much heavier this little monster is. Rather than rugged, gluey, plaid-clad rawk, the BOTSC trio deal in some pretty monumental doom metal that takes in the epic fury of Neurosis, lugubrious turns that could feasibly owe a debt to Asunder and the occasional peppier, palm-muted moment that serve as nods to Doyle’s earlier endeavours. Opening track ‘Lava’ encapsulates what the album’s all about, with a heavy, scalding, inevitable flow worthy of its title, and from thereon in things don’t get any lighter or any prettier – precisely the opposite, in fact. While the results are good rather than great, the booming delivery and sheer gusto of it all make this a hard one to ignore, and it’s certainly a decent antidote to your predicament if you find yourself with a worryingly riff-free hour or so at hand.
