Round Three! Grim Kim's back (in black?) to spread the word on her latest obsessions and open yer ears to some of the best bands that the uber tr00 underground metal scene's got to offer. This time around, we're slowing it down and uglying it up a bit. Crack open another beer, spark up a fatty, and come on in. Welcome to Revelations of…Doooooooom.
It takes a lot to make me go out on a limb and replace Dopesick with something new and untested; luckily for me, one of those things happens to be seeing the 20 Buck Spin logo on an alien CD. If you haven't heard of 20 Buck Spin by now, you're truly missing out; they put out amazing records by amazing bands, and I'd confidently place them amongst the creme de la creme of underground independent labels right now (hell, if only for that Coffins/The Arm and Sword of a Bastard God split they released last year). Anyway, I now owe them an even bigger slice of my soul for sending me the debut album from SAMOTHRACE.
Samothrace hail from Lawrence, Kansas, and play bluesy, crippled doom, steeped in Midwestern pathos and heaped with layers upon layers of crushing distortion and sinewy melodies that recall Neurosis at their best and Across Tundras at their darkest. Harsh vocals rattle in a bourbon-soured throat and spin tales of naked desperation and lonesome nights overtop mammoth riffs and painful dirges. Menacing yet delicate, captivating and hypnotic, Life's Trade's advance is as slow and unstoppable as the tides themselves.
This band…is…SO…GOOD. I'm blown away. You know that rare, magical moment when you put on a new album and fall so deeply in love with it that you've inadvertently become a lifelong fan by the time the first chord's been struck? This is that kind of album. Life's Trade might just be the best release of 2008 (or at least has earned a spot in my Top Ten). I'm well aware that I'm gushing away like a schoolgirl with a crush, but really, I am dead fucking serious – you NEED to hear this band.
Their debut album was recorded and mixed by Sanford Parker (Buried At Sea, Pelican, Nachtmystium); Life's Trade is out now on 20 Buck Spin. Buy their records, wear their shirts, go see them on tour (they're playing 70 dates – 70 DATES. You have literally no excuse to miss them when they roll through your town). Above all, listen to this band; you owe it to them, and goddamn, do you owe it to yourself.
