Bandcamp Picks - Dead Witches, Ohhms, Endless Floods, Norilsk

Electric Wizard don't have the cachet they did 10 years ago, but there's still a fair amount of hype surrounding Dead Witches (which contains original Wizard drummer Mark Greening). With Oliver Hill of DoC faves Sea Bastard on guitar, there's no doubting the heaviness of The Final Exorcism, which takes the Wizard's true doom fealty to rumbling new lows. The only sore point is new vocalist Soozi Chameleone, whose limited range and off-key wailing often grate - although Ozzy carved out a half-century career with those same qualities, so there's no reason why that should hold Dead Witches back. [€7.99]




OHHMS have carved out a sizable following with a series of releases that mine the once fertile Isis/Hydrahead terrain. Exist, their fourth album, ups the prog complexity of early Mastodon, keeping the listener off-balance with constant tempo changes and stylistic shifts - and that's just the album's monster 22 minute opener. Not a band who makes things easy - either for themselves or the audience. [£7.99 GBP]



If doom metal as a genre seems content to reprise the first four Black Sabbath albums ad infinitum, then Bordeaux trio Endless Floods may come as a relief. Completely eschewing blues riffs and classical scales, Circle The Gold drops dissonant chords like cinder blocks, occasionally easing the distortion but never the weirdness. The baton that Harvey Milk drunkenly tossed aside has been claimed. [€6]



Saskatoon-based duo Norilsk hit a lot of different flavours of slow + heavy on their epic, somewhat meandering third album. Weepers of the Land tries its hand at groovy riffs and grandiose melodies, but is at its best when it strips everything down to a forlorn minimalism. Here's hoping the band zeroes in on those impulses on future albums. The album is available as a "name your price" download.

Bandcamp Picks - Dead Witches, Necro, Endless Floods, Body Void

After months of beating the drum for their debut, Dead Witches are upon us. With its rumbling low end and occult overtones, Ouija spells true British doom in no uncertain terms. And with Mark Greening behind the kit, Electric Wizard would be the most obvious reference point - but this is more engaging than anything the Wizard has released in over a decade. [€8]



DoC faves Necro finished up 2016 with another master class in heavy psych rock. Adiante, the Brazilian trio's third full-length, pimp walks out the gate with Lillian Lessa's confident delivery topping the band's Seventies' keyboard-inflected low-rider grooves. "Swinging" in every sense of the word. [$7]



Restraint is key to Endless Floods. On their sophomore album (cleverly titled II ) the Bordeaux trio delays gratification as long as it can, stretching out their minimalist instrumental passages like taffy. When they bring the heavy, it's with the efficacy of a forklift operator dropping slabs of concrete. Watch your heads. [€4]



Starting their EP off like repeated punches to the face is a good indication of where Body Void's heads are at. Their first release since changing their name from Devoid, Ruins is a punishing affair, alternating between feedback-laced sludge and (relatively) faster hardcore sections - like Eyehategod through a burned out sub-woofer. [$5]

Bandcamp Picks - Swans, Terra Tenebrosa, eyeswithoutaface/IRN, Endless Floods

The current incarnation of Swans is coming to an end, but apparently not in any kind of hurry. With most songs running over 10 minutes - and a couple well over 20 - The Glowing Man is a testament to Michael Gira's scope and ambition. Swans have always utilized minimalism and repetition (not to mention Gira's imperious baritone) to maximum effect, only now that effect is restrained and meditative; though I have no doubt that it'll be delivered at ear-wrecking levels in concert. As unlikely as it seemed a decade ago that Swans would reform and deliver four albums as good and as relevant as their Eighties output, it now seems equally hard to believe that this is the last we'll hear from them. But it would be a hell of a high note to go out on. [$15.99]



It was big news for me when members of my beloved Breach resurfaced in Terra Tenebrosa. Ignoring all musical boundaries, third album The Reverses sees them integrating Breach's driving rhythms and discordance with sinister atmospherics, topped by Tomas Hallbom's hellish rasp. Even without the costumes and mystery, this is one of the most intriguing bands active right now. [€7.77]



It's been a while since we checked in with our friends eyeswithoutaface, and all has not been quiet. On their recent split with IRN, they punish the listener with four bleak new noise and electronics-tinged dirges; this is what the robots will be playing when they finally rise against us. For their part, IRN contribute one sludgy original as well as covers of Electric Wizard and that old hesher standard "Combat Swine", slathered in feedback and bad intentions. Death and hatred to mankind all around. The split is available as a "name your price" download.



Say this about Endless Floods - they're committed to the idea of doom. On their self-titled debut EP, the Bordeaux trio shuffles along like a funeral march, one oppressive chord after another and not a bong or Seventies riff in sight. An audio suicide note. [€3]