Welcome back to Apotheosis! We’ve got quite the week lined up for you with two AOTY contenders in this week’s issue. There’s also a breakdown of one of my favorite subgenres in all of metal, so I took things a bit more in-depth than usual. But you don’t need to sit around reading this intro anymore, let’s dig in.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Black Sheep Wall - Songs for the Enamel Queen
This was one of the most heavily contested weeks in 2021 so far. With multiple albums ranked above an 8/10, there was plenty to consider. But at the very last minute, I stumbled upon this record from Black Sheep Wall, and friends, it’s my metal AOTY of 2021 so far.
Like all of my favorite metal albums, this record doesn’t fit too cleanly into any single category. The opening track, “Human Shaped Hole,” feels like a Fall of Troy track run through a down-tuning or two, while other songs morph into chugging breakdowns and cacophonous drones. “Ren,” the centerpiece of the record, even adds horns to shake things up, and somehow they make it work.
The whole affair is crushingly heavy. Despite the peaks and valleys, there’s always the sense that the world could be torn asunder beneath your feet. Your anxieties are warranted, I might add, if the closing minutes of outro “Prayer Sheet for Wounds and Nails” are anything to go by. Whatever it was that compelling Black Sheep Wall to make this record, I’m glad they made it, because this one isn’t leaving the top spot without one hell of a fight.
Great Metal from this Week
Once again February pulled through with some incredible records. We may only have one 8/10 plus record, but it does happen to be one of the five best metal albums I’ve heard all year, just barely falling behind Songs for the Enamel Queen. The Anneke van Giersbergen was especially great, though it isn’t really metal. But hey, if To the Teeth put it on their newsletter I’ll put it on mine.
Catch up on highlights from nearly all of these albums by following the Apotheosis Fresh Kills Playlist on Spotify.
Subgenre Guide - Doom Metal
Originally I had intended to do this guide in a totally chronological order, but sadly there isn’t really consensus on when certain genres emerged or became popular. So I’ll continue to hover around general time ranges (sorry nu-metal you’ll have to wait) but know that this isn’t really in exact order.
With that out of the way, it’s time to turn to one of my favorite metal subgenres, Doom Metal. Entire books, like J.J. Anslemi’s wonderful Born to Fail, have been written on the genre and if you’re into it I suggest checking those out. This is more of an “at-a-glance” understanding of the subgenre. Also, for the purposes of length, this will not include Stoner Doom bands, though I may mention them towards the end. I didn’t forget about Sleep or Electric Wizard, trust me. I’m dumb, but not that dumb.
Doom metal officially began in the early 70’s with bands like Candlemass, Saint Vitus, and Witchfinder General. But if you ask me, the first ever doom song was “Black Sabbath,” predictably, by Black Sabbath, from their album Black Sabbath. Doom metal is a lot of things, and many of them are great, but without a doubt the genre was founded on Sabbath worship. Looking at the style itself, it’s pretty easy to peg this influence point.
Much like Sabbath before them, a majority of the doom metal bands were lyrically interested in misanthropy, and musically obsessed with the riff. Starting concurrently with groups like Judas Priest and Dio, who were primarily focused on singing higher and more technically, doom pivoted hard into the opposite direction. Instead of bringing the vocals up to soaring heights and making the guitars play faster, they dropped everything down a few octaves. Riffs and notes rang out like gunshots through a canyon, while disaffected lyrics were delivered through a series of growls and exhausted mumbles. But what doom metal lacked in flash, it made up for in texture and force.
While all metal owes a significant portion of its existence to blues music, doom metal is especially focused on using blues scales. Many bands in the style also incorporate the same disaffected, gloomy and pessimistic lyrics as blues musicians once did. Doom, fittingly, aims to sound like there is no light and no hope, and pulls this off by combining their down-tuned instruments with massive walls of amplifiers, feedback and distortion. The resulting sound is oppressively heavy, thick and suffocating.
In the time since it’s development in the early seventies, doom metal has become a cottage industry unto itself. The style now boasts dozens of mashup styles and distinct styles beneath its rather large umbrella. Most famous of all is the aforementioned stoner doom, which was pioneered by bands like Kyuss and Sleep who plumbed the depths of Sabbath’s back catalog for songs like “Sweet Leaf” from Masters of reality. As you may expect, stoner doom features heavy references to weed and other psychedelic drugs, but it is slightly less pessimistic (in some cases) than original doom metal. Other notable sub-styles of doom metal include gothic doom, blackened doom, funeral doom, sludge metal and DSBM.
There are countless reference points for early doom, and all of them equally deserving of attention. But at this point I find myself drawn to whatever gets us closest to stoner doom. And of all the bands from the legendary era of OG doom, none go as deep or as heavy (or were as from Los Angeles) as Saint Vitus. I’ve linked their song “Born Too Late” below, but don’t sleep on the other bands who were a part of this iconic movement.
Non-Metal AOTW
Julien Baker - Little Oblivions
As expected, Julien Baker has followed up her amazing 2017 album, Turn Out the Lights, with something just as impressive. Much like fellow boygenius bandmate Phoebe Bridgers, Baker has an impeccable ear for taking the calm and turning it into desperation. Every guitar note rings out with a sense of longing, a feat accomplished through post/arena rock level layering and pedals. The lyrics are no slouch either, with lines like “It isn’t black and white, what if it’s all black baby, all the time.” it’s easy to identify with the emotional states that Baker is expressing. I’ll have to spend more time peeling back the layers of this album, but I expect that it’ll crawl into my top ten by year’s end.
Runners-up
MAMMOTHS IN SPACE ON DRUGS IN SPACE ON DRUGS
Tons of exciting metal dropped on Friday, as did a few notable non-metal releases. While I have yet to get to most of these, I can already go ahead and endorse the Arab Strap album, which has some of the best atmospheres I’ve heard this year.
Metal Albums
Demon Hunter - Songs of Death and Resurrection
Acid Mammoth - Caravan
Chevelle - Niratias
Krallice - Demonic Wealth
Mork - Katedralen
Som - Awake
Non-Metal Albums
Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats - UNLOCKED 1.5
Tigers Jaw - I Won’t Care How You Remember Me
Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark
Photay - On Hold
Is something you love missing from the list? Drop an album in the comments for me to check out!
Shrinekeeping
That’s all for this week! It looks like the upcoming slate of Friday releases is impressive enough that we might get some real contenders there too. I mean, Krallice has never let me down before, so I assume they won’t start now.
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Lastly, I can’t guarantee the next post will make it up on Sunday morning like usual. I’ll do my best to get it to you all as close to Sunday as possible, but I’ll be driving across the country for a long distance move starting on Wednesday and doubt I’ll be able to get much writing done. So don’t worry if nothing is in your inbox on Sunday, I (probably) didn’t die.
If I do though, one of y’all better make an album about it.