The first two minutes of Rain Have Mercy consist of elongated tones, slow and seething drone and the fear that’s all we’re getting. So I am pretty excited when the distortion drenched guitar kicks in. I was even more electrified when a second louder guitar tears through the layers and thrashes me about the ears with it’s riff-stick. The vocals fall on the gloomier, blackened doom side of the ledger while the texture of the song as a whole is reminiscent of the cloud-like Jesu or melodic as the leading instrumental group named after a sea bird.
Any two piece’s chore is to fill up all that empty space and for most, riding the keys seems to be the preferred choice. It’s performed on Sun Blind Me with the desired effect of creating a haunted mansion feel, slowly building anxiety and raising my blood pressure. When it seems you can’t take any more a terrifying voice comes creeping up behind you. This is actually pretty scary music that would fit well in an italian horror film.
There is a great mix of horror and sludge and instrumental elements on the first two tracks of this e.p. It reminds me of Winter in a way but, within the brushstrokes of early doom lies something chillingly modern. This type of doom seems to be more of a reflection of the complicated, painful world today as opposed to the similarly awful machine of the eighties. I think there is a patience and resilience in the listener that didn’t exist back then. These long, painful songs are imbued with the sorrow of a world in perpetual war.
The last two tracks are from their demo and are of a more lo-fi quality. The Alphomega tracks are mostly ambient, yet well constructed and thoughtful. The four tracks come out to about forty minutes. Though I understand why they call it an e.p. I could consider it a complete album. In fact, I would jump on the limited edition cassette if I were you. The two demo tracks have vitality and tape is the perfect medium for cave echo and vacuum cleaner doom/drone.
--Plague Rat
