The name Slog probably means nothing for you, but you’ll be marked by the band.
Created in the United States by Nicholas Turner (guitar/bass, Schizochristo, ex-Nothing Is Real…) and Jared Moran (drums/vocals, 54R, Draug, Filtheater, Maggot Crown, Occulsed, Yzordderrex…), the band releases Graves, its first full-length.
In eight songs, the band will brew a Death/Doom with dark and weighing accents, and we begin by Wounded Practitioner. An unhealthy dissonance takes place under cavernous howlings and the slow rhythm, then some piercing melodies get away from this thick mass, while we feel some Black Metal oppression on Hidden Realities. The song however offers a soaring and worrying clean sound part, then saturation slowly surfaces again before the final, which leaves us with Ceremonial Magicks with a larsen. Epic sounds join the crushing mass which borrows to Old School Death Metal, then the rhythmic slows down again to Corporal and its suffocating riffs full of palm-mute. Worrying leads in the background are not have not gone away, and they give birth to a tortured solo before raw strength crushes us again, then Levitating Beyond offers effective and heady patterns. The rhythm part slows down a lot to place this groovy final, then Gluttonous takes advantage of an energetic drum part to use unhealthy and greasy riffs, followed by chaotic but still epic leads. The sound is still as impressive before letting Voluntary Disintegration appease us with this soft introduction. But quietness won’t last, because it will be annihilated by the sometimes choked dark heaviness of the unhealthy rhythmic. Phenomena Esoteric, the last song, also draws from Funeral Doom to enhance the weighing sonorities of the rhythmic section, while placing cavernous howlings and disturbing leads before allowing the void to swallow the sound.
Slog uses the duo’s experience to create a weighing and dark sound. Graves is viscerally anchored into Death and Doom Metal, but some influences from Black, Funeral Doom and perhaps Sludge can be expected for this greasy sound mass.
80/100