Seven Sisters of Sleep
Seven Sisters of Sleep
A389 Records/Southern Lord

Belly-squelching full-length debut from California’s Seven Sisters of Sleep, who have one of those amazing band names that offer a dark promise, and in this case that dark promise is a hellish renaissance of doom and gloom. Sure enough, these Sisters deliver, conjuring up a hardcore sludge that contains all the Gothic madness of an Albrecht Dürer woodcutting come to life through walls of black fuzz. Now, the eight songs here only run for about 20 minutes, which ain’t really your conventional method for dispensing doom metal, but then again, this doom metal just happens to be wrapped in a cloak of aggression, so it makes sense. In as much, Seven Sisters of Sleep strikes a chaotic balance; the majority of the riffs toe the brutal line, rolling slow and deadly, while the beat and vocals run rabidly ahead and sniff out the corpses. In some cases (“Tide is Rising,” CCEC,” and “Swamp”) it’s all grind and gnash, the hunting party descending upon you without hesitation, ruining your life.

Listen to “Monasteries” from Seven Sisters of Sleep!

#2 The Devil’s Blood – The Time of No Time Evermore

As European as the Renaissance, as inviting as a red light, as despair-ridden as a dungeon full of skeletons, and as classic as Thin Lizzy, no new band caught my attention more this year than The Devil’s Blood, who rock the Transylvania castle party in a HUGE way. They released a demo in ’07, and a 7″ and 5-song EP last year, so call this one their first full-length, and it’s nothing but a gorgeous offering of ’70s metal (you know, the kind of metal that’s more rock n’ roll than metal, the kind that bands like Deep Purple played) and sacrilegious pop, an occult rock n’ soul record of wicked lore, perhaps summoned from the days of yore. Modernly speaking though, it’s like Urge Overkill jamming with Shiny Mama — this band is clearly the lovechild of Nash Kato and Yana Chupenko sent to hypnotize us all and steal our virtue. Yes! And their song “I’ll Be Your Ghost”? Yeah dude, far and away my favourite song of the year.

Listen to “I’ll Be Your Ghost” from The Time of No Time Evermore!

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