Unearthly Trance - Electrocution
The cover of this album is cool, a black and white drawing of a bird of prey sat atop the earth with forked lightning illuminating the sky. This screams that it is going to be my kind of record.
Unearthly Trance were a blackened doom band from New York featuring Ryan Lipynsky (AKA Killusion of Thralldom and later of The Howling Wind) on guitar and vocals.
The opener, Chaos Star, is mid-paced proto-black metal with a heavy bottom end, kinda latter day Darkthrone meets Pilgrim. God Is A Beast is firmly in doom territory, with an epic middle section which has the feel of a much heavier version of the climax of Kyuss' 'Supa Scoopa & Mighty Scoop' whilst the track finishes with rapidly descending doom. The Dust Will Never Settle is speedy black metal with meaty riffs a la Goatwhore which morphs into a doomy waltz. The crushing Diseased features some nifty basswork while the sludgy Religious Slaves is firmly in Thou territory. The Scum Is In Orbit is part early Earth fronted by John Garcia, part viking black 'n' roll. Distant Roads Overgrown is fist pumping and almost anthemic.
As you can probably tell, although this is primarily blackened doom, there are hints of numerous related sub-genres; sludge, drone, stoner rock, post metal and southern fried rock, all of which is amplified for maximum heaviness. A really good, crushing album.
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