That Doomed Feeling: What Have You Done Lately

What Have You Done Lately - Sasquatch - II

I thought I'd make some posts more directly relating with one of my favorite sub genres of music: Doom Metal. Doom metal is just normal metal (which in itself is hard to define, the sound difference between Iron Maiden and Golgoroth is vast, but both are blanketed under the term metal) but with a very slow tempo. A great and early example of doom metal is Black Sabbath from the album Black Sabbath by the band Black Sabbath. Although not original in name it was original in just how slow dark and "doomed" the music sounded. Many modern Doom Bands are now considered part of the "Stoner" genre, when that term was birthed in the early nineties, because of their hypnotic nature and lyrically focus on illict drugs (i.e. Weedeater), but again the basic qualities are the same, slow, loud, and heavy. Some bands I've posted about before that fall into this genre would be: Electric Wizard, Acid King, Om, and Earth. A classic Doom band that I need to post about is: Sleep.

What Have You Done Lately off of Sasquatch's second album II (Creative, just like Sabbath's song Sabbath, off the album Sabbath), really hit the button for me in terms of doom metal. It's less vile than Electric Wizard, while still holding onto its tripped out, heavy, and hypnotic stylings. The thing I really like about this is that instead of just riding out that groove, Sasquatch seems to have a little fun with it and just get into a absolute stomping tear, changing the tempo and the riff, and layering on even more lead heavy guitar.

Enjoy.

Monday Night Special: Return Trip

Return Trip - Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics

Well it's been a while since I reviewed an Electric Wizard track (let alone listen to one) and Return Trip really brought me back to what I first loved about them. They really should have been featured in the March Madness piece and it's a shame I didn't write anything about them because they are without a doubt one of the most maddening bands I've ever heard. While they're not exactly doing much new with the content of the genre (satanist imagery and slow dark jams about drug use have been around for a while) they do something special with where they take the sound. This weekend I was listening to some old Black Sabbath song's and their Electric Funeral stuck out to me as the forerunner to Electric Wizards earlier stuff. The distortion, the slowness and repetitiveness of the entire melody, except of course for the jazzy fun tempo change at 2:17. Thats the true "innovation" (if you could call it that, devolution might be more appropriate) of Electric Wizard. They do away with most concepts of lyrics, melody, and tempo change, and opt instead to sink the listener into a black pit of fuzz and distortion with an occasional rising guitar solo eventually falling back into the muck. I wouldn't say Return Trip is a song for people with long attention spans, it's more for people with no attention spans that just like to sink back and fall in. Enjoy.