The brand new album by Windhand, doom band based in Richmond, Virginia (USA), is almost out via Relapse Records, September 17th 2013. Windhand is a band able to cast spells since their early-ish days back in 2010 via their crushing demo (HERE). The band fully developed their style in their monster self-titled debut album out during 2012 via Forcefield Records and Mordgrimm Records (HERE).
Windhand band has been active since 2008. The present-day line-up involves the three “veterans” Asechiah Bogdan (ex-Alabama Thunderpussy) on guitars, Dorthia Cottrell on vocals and Garrett Morris on more guitars, with Parker Chandler (frontman and bassist in Cough) recently added on bass guitar and Ryan Wolfe on drums. Windhand is deeply connected with and stems from the outstanding and prolific heavy scene in Richmond, VA (e.g., Cough, Pig Destroyer, Municipal Wate, Cannabis Corpse, Alabama Thunderpussy, Gwar, Birds of Prey, etc.).
Right from the start the band liked to blend Sabbathian/Saint Vitus-inspired doom with occult psychedelia written under the shade of the swamp cypress in the southern marshes. These guys and gal mix obsessive, drony, pachydermic rhythms with the roughness of distorsion and the unearthy and deeply charming vocals by Dorthia Cottrell. Dorthia possesses a unique, haunting voice, blues and ghostly at the same time, rather different from the powerfully melodic vocals of doom lady singers like Jex Thoth, Uta Plotkin of Witch Mountain or Alia O’Brien in Blood Ceremony.
Windhand recently entered the roster of Relapse Records and is experiencing a burning hot year: the devastanting split with Cough out during last Spring (HERE), the announcement of their involvement into Roadburn 2014, and, finally, the upcoming release of their second, new album, Soma. Soma is 6 tracks for over 75 minutes of rough, witching, occult-flavoured heaviness.
Are 75 minutes scary? Well, probably they are, although those who live on raw, occult and psychedelic doom, like, e.g., in Electric Wizard, will be happy kids with Windhand.
In the new album Soma the quintet keep on playing as punishingly heavy as in the split with Cough. So they build up mastodontic ballads where sounds are deafening and dirty and guitars emit dull and coarse roars. Dorthia’s ghostly voice, the abrasive guitar solos and, sometimes, even the drumming are rendered as almost defocused, or else suffocated by the tremendous buzz of the feedback. Album Soma may be roughly subdivided into two parts. The first part sees a sequence of four ballads with imposing yet fairly “normal” lengths for doom songs, i.e., between 6 and 9-10 minutes. Then it is the turn of two more demanding suites extending for almost 14 and over 30 minutes each. The album is opened by Orchard, a slow, hypnotic and gloomy ballad in full hommage to Electric Wizard and able to further bring out the charm of Dorthia Cottrell’s peculiar and evanescent vocal style.
A noisy drony interval separates the first track from the following, stunning ballad Woodbine, where the band add dynamics by occasionally slightly speeding up the pace and by multiplying the chanting by means of reverbed effects. Everything gets even more ethereal and hallucinating. The plodding and meandering Sabbathian riff leading the track is drenched with groove and infectious. It’s nothing new, of course, totally classic, maybe already heard in some Saint Vitus’ songs or so. But it’s all fine because with their touch Windhand are able to transform plain classic doom riff patterns into something granitic and volatile at the same time.
The thrid track, Feral Bones, is broadly following the previous style, with slow propulsion fueled by dirty, growling, almost sludgy guitars. However Dorthia’s echoing singing, dominating the scene here, is particularly melodic and more atmospheric than ever. It may therefore not be by chance that the following ballad, Evergreen, is pure distilled melody: acoustic guitar and soft chant in an extremely simple, achingly melancholic and intimate combination. The acoustic ballad Evergreen further confirms the simple but irresistible charm of Dorthia Cottrell’s voice also without the noisy superstructure of metal effects. Evergreen is not one of those simple acoustic intervals often sandwiched inbetween heavy tracks. It is a fully standing, almost 7 minutes-long melancholic, dark folk ballad which is effectively breaking up what may become monotony. This ballad is simple and relaxing and gets your mind ready for the coarse buzz of fuzz and the roar of the feedback opening the second part of the album with Cassock.
Cassock is another doomy yet dynamic suite starting very heavy and slow. However, like with the sea waves on the shore, the riff power is evoked and produced in a cyclic way and in progressive growth up to apex of noise combined with distorted guitars, wild percussions and chanting invocations. A sudden slowdown is what makes you plunge into the darkest depths of funeral doom, even if graced by the spectral levity of Dorthia’s chant. This funereal second part too undergoes a slowly growing development by means of chaotic sounds and noises progressively inserted between complex drumming patterns and the deafening feedback. Pure noise will put anything to end. After the magmatic surge in Cossack, the breaths of wind and the intimate acoustic guitar populating the first few minutes of the titanic suite Boleskine almost sound as balming. Soon the ponderous distorted riffs will start knitting a sick, sorrowful melody with minimal but perceivable tempo changes, a funereal lithany echoing as if in a tri-dimensional, dark space and nest to coarse abrasive yet groove-laden guitar solos. Another sonic limbo made of delicate touches of acoustic guitar is separating a second and even more dilated wave of mind-blowing cemeterial sludge which will slowly die out into silence.
Soma is a way charming and heavy album, maybe a bit too long. Or better, probably suite Boleskine is a bit extreme length-wise, after almost 45 minutes of hypnotic, molasse-like ritual sludge-doom. I must say I wouldn’t have minded to find another track similar to Shepherd’s Crook in Windhand’s split with Cough, i.e. a track that I had felt as a bit different in approach, less occult and almost “epic”. But it is also true that albums dealing with lysergic occult doom are enjoyed for an almost mystical experience where the listener doesn’t care about the time!
As for the split with Cough, the new album was recorded and mixed by guitar player Garrett Morris in the band’s studio, The Darkroom, in Richmond. Probably the enhanced roughness, and consequently heaviness, of the sound is thanks to Garrett’s touch as well as to James Plotkin’s mastering. Different from what you can see on cover arts of several (and new) bands devoted to retro/occult psych stoner/doom, where luscious psych art is blooming when not hackneyed, Windhand adopted a surprisingly sober, desolate grey cover art, hinting more to depressive black metal than anything else! But no problem: typhoons of colours and darkness will come via music and imagination!
What is left to say to the lucky ones who will be at Roadburn next year is that experiencing Windhand in that temple of doom will be really something …But before Roardburn 2014 will come, be aware that Windhand are going to tour quite substantially. For example, check out the official flyer as well as the band’s website for dates and venues of their USA Fall Tour which started a few days ago.
Tracklist
1. Orchard 06:37
2. Woodbine 09:22
3. Feral Bones 7:59
4. Evergreen 6:56
5. Cassock 13:45
6. Boleskine 30:29
Words: Marilena Moroni
Winhand's Soma @ Relapse
Bandcamp