Woman is The Earth : Depths

Another amazing step forward in USBM is a South Dakota band , who if you let the atmospheric black metal label fool you then you will be as taken by surprise by the hammering intensity they open the little three song album with.There is a layer of atmosphere to what they do , but it only provides a thin buffer to the beating your ear drums will get from this one .

These guys are a three piece , two of the members are brothers and they conjure a pretty big sound for a three piece.It seems live volume is their secret, though the songs do find and ebb and flow. Midway into the first song acoustic guitars break out only for a breif reprieve. I like these guys are very dark and very heavy. I had gotten turned off by atmospheric black metal because if the production on the thin keyboards don't sound weird there wasn't enough meat. Each modulation hits the same kind of mourful sweet spot that funeral doom does.

The second song "Lifted" almost feels like an interlude sandwiched in-between the two heavy juggernauts. The guitar playing is pretty cool, so it makes it worth a listen, even if you would normally think of it as blues noodling fir for Opeth. I do wish this had been a full song rather than just breathing room for a solo, no matter how well composed it was.

"Child of Sky" is the second actual song at over nine minutes so there is about twenty minutes of songs and five of a solo piece making this fall closer to an EP. Reign in Blood sets the standard for shortest album before its an EP at 28 minutes. This one takes it time getting warmed up into with lots of chanting before they stomp into battle like Moonsorrow, with double bass blaring.It is weird how in the final four minutes the song stops and launches back into a more sonci riff which is cool but a awkward transition. Still these guys are great at what they do just want to hear more of it. They do tend to revert into the blasting when all else fails , so curious to see if they break that bad habit on a longer effort, still this is good stuff and I will give it a 8.5, as I like it but think they brought the goods so hard on the first song they are capable of even better.  

2.5