FurtherDown
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Soundoffs 9
Album Ratings 980
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Last Active 12-20-21 9:49 am
Joined 06-25-14

Review Comments 395

 Lists
04.25.24 CAPS LOCK ALBUMS12.21.23 You like noisy soundscapes and pretty l
10.18.23 A year of 4.5 releases09.01.23 Cult of Luna piano covers (again)
08.31.23 In search for slow metal06.22.23 Czech & Slovak recommendations you need ♦
05.06.23 New post-metal / drone record I contrib ♦04.11.21 My new ambient/noise album + digs
04.29.20 Longest Swans post-2010 songs ranked04.25.20 Some songs to listen to, if you are int
09.18.19 I made a drone/ambient album.11.15.18 Top 15 Cult of Luna songs

In search for slow metal

List in which I capture my journey to find the best slow metal records. Also a big ode to finding new music on sputnik! Tell me which crucial sludge/doom bands I missed and what is your favorite minimalist metal stuff!
1Fall of Efrafa
Inle

I should maybe start even earlier, with the obvious mentions of Cult of Luna, Isis and Neurosis, which got me into the whole post-metal thing and are still among my favorites. Still, I'd say the first "really slow" record I grew to love few years back is Inle. All the slow grooves, broad dynamics and crushing riffs are perfectly crafted, it requires some patience but the reward is exceptional.
2Kowloon Walled City
Grievances

This awesome band admittedly doesn't play THAT slow, but the way they use restraint in their songs (mostly in more recent material) is magical. Something about the silence between the notes really captivates me. It's simple, gets straight to the point and it rules.
3Nadja
Radiance of Shadows

This is quite the opposite of "band playing in one room" feel of previous two albums - maximalist wall of distorted sound and crushing guitars with programmed drums, but it still maintains the slow riffs and endless buildups. The lo-fi aesthetics of this are something that clicks with me a lot, and it is obviously in line with The Angellic Process, my all-time favorite gem found on sputnik (I feel it doesn't belong to this list, but it is MASSIVE).
4Big|Brave
nature morte

I can't forget also this amazing band and their absolutely crushing drone metal. Yeah, they are less about riffs and more about the atmosphere and all-consuming sound, but I couldn't do this list without them as I completely adore them. Check out their recent Audiotree live session, amazing stuff.
5Therapist
Svet/lo Slepých

This is a Slovakian band I stumbled upon almost accidentaly (I'm Czech, so they are almost local for me) and I became obsessed with this record. Amazing lo-fi sound with haunting soundscapes and huge riffs painting the beautiful picture of Slovakian wilderness, scary and beautiful at the same time. It's a very post-metal record, but some parts are close to shoegaze and almost like Deftones at times. I already hyped this band in my previous list, go check them if you're into this. This album is also where I really started to look purposefully for slow metal, because I wanted more of this. Genre tags said "funeral doom" which I wasn't that familiar with, so it was the best time to jump on sputnik.
6Sleep
Dopesmoker

Before entering the "doom" tag, I got to this classic of course. The riffs are massive, yet a little much repetitive at times, which is a quality I often like, but I'm not captivated so much here. But it's still a great record.
7The Ruins of Beverast
Rain Upon the Impure

This one combines excellent lo-fi black metal with some really great doom passages. It's hard to get into, but immersive enough.
8Warning
Watching from a Distance

Very melancholic and desperate album, its appeal is significantly dependent on the vocal performance and lyrics. The riffs are very melodic and deliciously slow, even if they come a little formulaic at times.
9Esoteric
The Pernicious Enigma

Perfect classic of the doom genre I suppose, little too "metal" at times (sound-wise, drumming style etc), but once it gets to more experimental and psychedelic tracks, it's really cool.
10Khanate
Khanate

I got to this one thanks to their recent comeback album. Very unpleasant band, long experimental tracks that are hard to listen to. Brutal vocal performance. I haven't heard anything like this since.
11Harvey Milk
Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men

One of my most recent sputnik findings. I love this thing, it's probably more of a sludge record, which moves in very unpredictable directions with its folk and blues influences. The performances are on point and the occasional quiet ballads make the riff passages hit even harder.
12Bell Witch
Future's Shadow I: The Clandestine Gate

Okay we got to the final two entries in my list, which are my favorites from this whole slow metal searching thing. I already listened to Longing some time ago and while it definitely is great, I found some harmonic progressions to be quite unoriginal and it didn't leave that much of an impression on me. However, with this year's album, I slowly become obsessively hooked to their patient, drastically minimalist approach. This one 80 minutes track just suck me in every time.
The big conclusion was when I got to this year's Brutal Assault for one day and luckily it was the day BW played after midnight. One hour before that, I got invited for a bong by some friends, which multiplied my experience like thousand times and I was floating in the sound, completely lost the whole set. Also, the way the bass player does both low notes and melodies at once, with the distortion creating all of these beautiful resonances is just mindblowing. One of my most favorite concert experiences for sure.
13Corrupted
Llenandose De Gusanos

This is it, this is the ultimate slow metal band I found. Once I got to this album by the relatively obscure Japanese band, I was immediately interested. 2 tracks with the runtime exceeding 2 hours? First 17 minutes comprising just of haunting piano and some whispers, then some of the heaviest slow metal mayhem I've ever heard with uncompromising vocals and then quiet ambient synths for over an hour? Fucking amazing stuff. Big points for using piano in doom metal riffage also, I don't know why it's not done more often (hit me with recommendations on this topic!). Can't wait to explore other parts of their hard-to-trace discography, I got a feeling I'm in for a treat.
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