Naught : " s/t'

Here we are in the dog days of fall, the year is winding down and I find myself listening to anything I can to make sure there is nothing I have missed out on. So I am checking out the gloom metal of Naught a band from Phoenix who on first listen sounds like they should be from Finland, but the wall of Sunno))) amps generating the fuzzed out distortion is too warm not to have come from the desert. The vocals are very interesting a weird mix of whispered shrieks so far behind the guitar its hard to heard what is really going on, but this adds to the mystique.They drone on a little too long in this twelve minute song, but on first listen it works. They churn with more momentum on the second real song "Firmament Alight"  they finds the rumbling in a more sludge like manner and blood curdling rant of the vocals coming out from behind the veil of distortion to show they might not be all that unique when coming out of the shadows to be heard in the light of day.


This album ends with the thirteen minute "Oblation" that finds the guitar injecting a little more feeling into the guitar melody that rises up out of the murky crunch that comes down like a slow hammer thanks to the lethargic drums. They pick up the pace to shuffling lumber almost eight minutes in.They have a powerful sound, though I found the first song more compelling when the vocals were more of a mystery and gave more of an atmosphere rather than just sounding like a depressed version of Eyehategod. They are good at what they do and I have an appreciation for this thus I'll give this one a 7, but the two other songs fall more in line with sounds I have already heard and I think this band came out of the gate showing me they could be more than just another dark and dirty sludge band.   This album comes out today on "Battlefield Records" . The band will have a limited number of 100 cds and  50 cassettes available at their performance at the Southwest Terror Festival where they play with Graves At Sea and Bongripper. So run to their merch both as soon as the lights come on if this is your sort of thing.