Ice Dragon
Tome of the Future Ancients
Self-Released

You never expect doom merchants to be terribly prolific in anything other than, say, inhaling copious amounts of green smoke and amassing an impressive cult horror movie collection, but it seems Ice Dragon produces an unnatural amount of black fuzz for a band that should be spending the majority of their time getting high and watching Suspiria. Tome of the Future Ancients is the Boston band’s third full-length in as many years (a digital only release for now; it will get a proper vinyl release later in the year on Yersinia Pestis Records) and the battery of torn-paged suspicions and spells it promotes are surely divined by some greater and sinister power. Their expanding canon is hell incarnate, and at 76 minutes, Tome doesn’t dare deign to loosen its grip, and thus Ice Dragon’s weird and wonderful shadow grows ever darker and longer. Much like their two previous albums, 2010′s The Burl, The Earth, The Aether and 2011′s The Sorrowful Sun, Tome masterfully blends the witchy metal of Black Sabbath, the crushing curses of Electric Wizard, and the thick dope smoke of Sleep, but it also integrates a phantasmagoria of heavy psych-drone (“Man Sitting in a Field of Green Grass,” “Astronomical Union,” “Adoration of Ra,” “Infinite Requiem”) into that formula for an all-together eerier descent into the mouth of ritualistic madness. Belly up to the altar, boy, for the Goat’s in league with the Ice Dragon and they’ve got (yet another) grand gift for you.

Listen to Ice Dragon’s Tome of the Future Ancients!

Behold! The Monolith
Defender, Redeemist
BTM Records

As proven before, Behold! The Monolith’s stoner sludge is for subhumans only, and it is on Defender, Redeemist, their second full-length, that the LA trio delve further into the subterranean, digging out their descent with sledgehammers, not shovels. Defender, Redeemist is rife with ground and pound riffs, and tracks like “Halv King,” “Desolizator,” “We Are the Worm,” and “Witch Hunt Supreme” are a glorious feast of mud pies and smegma cakes, each one belching out High On Fire fury amidst tremulous and atmospheric aggression. However, it’s on the album’s three longest songs, “Redeemist,” “Cast On The Black/Lamentor/Guided By The Southern Cross,” and “Bull Colossi,” that the band is at its most heinous, laying down an ageless, soul-sucking black metal doom that ebbs, flows, and screams in myriad glorious ways. Add to that Billy Anderson’s production work and Dusty Peterson’s art work (which kind of reminds me of a re-imagined Screaming for Vengeance), and Defender, Redeemist is one hell of a monster on so many different levels.

Listen to “Halv King” from Defender, Redeemist!

I know I’m getting to the BOM early, but I’m only going to have one more post after this before we move into next year, and besides, I already have the recipients picked out, so I don’t see any need to tarry. Oh, and if you don’t know by now, December is henceforth renamed Decembeard, although I do encourage you to just grow a beard every month, forever and always. Ok?

Now, this month’s winner is whomever this guy is! While I don’t know his name, I do love his beard; I can only hope my beard seasons itself as beautifully as his has. This savory gentleman, who, given the time of year, might be the coolest Santa ever with a beat-up pick-up for a sled, was posted on The Twilight Singers’ facebook page, and not only is it a terrific shot featuring a terrific beard, it’s got Greg Dulli’s fingerprints on it. Also terrific. Anyway, sir, your beard is storm born and wicked as hell, so congratulations!

Oh, and this month’s runners up are Kevin Clark and Tim Herzog from the North Carolina sludge metal band Black Skies. I never got around to reviewing their new album, On the Wings of Time, so I’m making up for it by honouring their singer/guitarist and drummer right here and now. But really, they would’ve made it based on those beards alone because those are some legit fuckers. Sea captain up front, wizard in the rear. Hell of a job, fellas.