Labels: Dry Cough – Hellas – Rope Or Guillotine
Review by: Alex Deller
A deep-dive into total sludge hell from this Slovenian quartet. Things start out with the pained, pendulous swagger of Toadliquor or pre-reformation Noothgrush before becoming gradually more obtuse, the riffs fragmenting and the roared vocals degrading to the point where they’re little more than an unnerving spectral groan. By the time the album reaches its bleak conclusion things have oozed into funeral doom territory, with maudlin melodies draped like cobwebs over tombstone-sized riffs and an atmosphere so thick that you feel like you have to physically push your way through it. While stylistically varied the changes are slow and subtle, meaning that while each lengthy track works well in isolation it’s as an unbroken whole that ‘Neon Crosses’ is at its most soul-crumblingly powerful.