Death is June - Reekmind : "Glints From The Crematorium"

I have not covered any death doom yet this month as I tend to dig into that in November for doom month, but this band from Austrailia leans more into the death metal side of the equation, so let's give them a shot. With mid-paced grinding guitars and the low growl of vocals, they are bold enough to open the album with a twenty-six-minute song, so let's see if it pays off. I am going to be a hard sell on any song over twelve minutes, and this is double the time. The first seven minutes have me convinced they could have wrapped this up in ten minutes. They think otherwise. Though I am proven right by how things break down into feedback at the eight-minute mark. This is where the next song should have begun. 

It certainly would have made sense, as the doomier chords they employ at this point have a different feel than the more death metal side they opened the album with. There is more purpose in the drive of "Cyst Monolith". The riffs and vocals have more commanding form and function rather than just oozing over the sonci landscape. The death metal aggression pumps through this without resorting to a great deal of speed, and makes the thirteen minutes go by fairly fast. The last song at eleven minutes is obviously their radio single. Speeding up to about Incantation intensity, they come from a similar place when it comes to darkness and the cavernous atmosphere summoned for this song. 

What this band does is not redefine either death metal or doom. They prove themselves capable of creating sprawling landscapes of grim sound occasionaly raided by the aggression of death metal. There are some good songs wedged between the columns of savage ambience that is more focused on creating a mood than hooking you in most of the time. However, the riffs that can do that prevail and fight their way through the murk to provide headbanging moments of respite in this subterranean wasteland. It works well enough for me to give this album an 8.5. It drops on Night Terror Records July 24th.

pst241