Imagine a smoke filled room. The acrid air, the fogginess of vision; all the senses permeated by the thick haze. This is the essence of stoner doom and one that is captured by Virginia group Windhand so very eloquently.
With only an LP and a split with fellow Virginia doom metallers Cough, Richmond’s Windhand are on the cusp of breaking out, unleashing their newest endeavor on Relapse Records, Soma. Clocking in at seventy-five minutes, the quintet manages to pack relentlessly slow, crush-your-soul riffing with layers upon layers of texture. Comparing it to Electric Wizard’s Dopesmoker seems fruitless; Soma is an entirely different entity. It’s an album that takes what has been already processed in doom metal, and what is spit out is a sense of urgency and ruthless intensity.
“Orchard” and “Woodbine”, the first two songs to be streamed, are massive. Windhand brings clarity to their riffs; they are clean and precise while retaining the drowned out, fuzzy noise. Catchy guitar leads and infectious drum beats: all are present on these first two tracks, and, for the astute follower of stoned-out doom metal, catchy isn’t a word that aptly describes the genre. But what happens on Soma is a remodeling of the Black Sabbath heralded scene, now pointed in a direction where contact highs are given through snappy riff patterns, instead of through some guy you just met wearing an unwashed Master of Reality t-shirt.
“Evergreen” brings heaviness in the form of acoustic guitar. The entire track is composed of the instrument found commonly in folk, with the waspy, airy vocals of Dorthia Cottrell. Her vocals are absolutely stunning here, capturing the essence of the track entirely. Artfully done and mesmerizingly catchy, “Evergreen” proves to be one of those tracks that just wash over, encompassing the listener in its sound. It’s easy to dismiss tracks like these as pure filler, but what Windhand does here completely changes the scope of the album. The group isn’t pigeonholed into creating the same metallic riffs, but instead they opt for something that branches out from the conventions of doom metal, showcasing a vast range of versatility.
Closing out the album, and for lack of a better term, is the thirty minute epic, “Boleskine”. Blending folk with the drowning doom sound, it is here that these metallers make their mark. An exhaustive listen, “Boleskin” is an adventure, a quest; getting through it is an accomplishment in itself, just for its length. The guitars are stripped down, crunching along on a steady path. There’s hardly room to breathe when Windhand chugs along. Slow, curdling riffs siphon all the air out and the listener is drowned in massive sound. The solos on this track are full of character, each part layered on top of each other to create dynamic texture. “Boleskine” drones on and on, to a fault at times, and before long, zoning out becomes necessity.
Soma is a release that marks the bands high point in terms of magnitude and writing ability. The mountain of layers that Windhand pours on, coupled with the catchiness of their riffs makes for an album that seamlessly blends some kind of weird pop sentimentality with doom metal. Each track is a movement in a much larger concept, culminating with “Boleskin”. And although the quintet can get a bit lengthy, it doesn’t detract from their ability to play with such a distinct voice. Imagine a smoke filled room. The acrid air. Imagine being in that room, surrounded by amplifiers, pumping out slow, drudging riffs. You’ll have Soma.
8.5/10
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC0MQog6Omg[/youtube]
