When Denver Colorado's Deer Creek released
their 2022 debut album "Menticide" Desert
Psychlist could not help but
throw a few words together in celebration of its impact on our riff beaten
ears. Now we get to do it all over again for their latest release "The Hiraeth Pit", another delicious
collection of low slow and heavy doomic grooves perfect for sagely
nodding along to while reverentially muttering "all hail the riff" under our breaths.
First out of the traps comes "Bodies To Be Kicked" a proto flavoured
doom banger boasting crunchy down-tuned distorted guitar tones supported
by equally crunchy bass and impressively busy drumming around which vocals are
traded off against one another in what feels, at times, like an almost
conversational style, a trick that proves especially effective when the song
drops into a slightly more stoner doomic dynamic in its later stages.
Gnarly and energetic is how we would describe the opening bars to next track
"The Wretches Who Grovel", but
that energy soon dissipates and its not long before the drums and bass lock
into a thick and syrupy doom groove around which the guitars swoop and
swoon over a sedately paced vocal that cryptically targets organised religion.
Third song "Crushed By the Hand Slowly Filling
With Gold" boasts stuttering riffage and thrumming rhythms
supporting melodic clean vocals while for its follow up. "They Were Buried Yesterday", things stay
fairly melodic in the vocal department but lean towards a swampier sludge
like dynamic musically. "Grey"
is up next and lyrically examines alien encounters against a backdrop of grainy
grizzled doom. "We Dreamed of Flames and
Suffocation" is a low slow and suitably heavy tirade against
oppression that features some searing lead guitar (Jeff
Montoya) that leads us to final song "Almshouse Stench" a discordant and droning
behemoth decorated in off centred lead vocals and slightly less than harmonious
harmonies that finally signs out in a doom-psych jam, intense
stuff!
“The Hiraeth Pit” is
an album that sees Deer Creek skirting around the edges of the stoner doom genre
without fully committing to it, this is a good thing as it allows them as a
band not to become restricted by the genres usual cliches and tropes and allows
them the room to stretch themselves a little. If you are a devotee of low slung
slowed down heavy music but are looking for something a little different but in
the same sort of ballpark then “The Hiraeth Pit”
could well be the album you have been searching for.
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