You know those moments when you’re in a rush to get somewhere on time? Or you know you have a minute to get to your bus stop to catch your bus to work but you still have to put your shoes on and brush your teeth? Or you’re in the gym working out and trying to beat your personal best on the 5km? Whatever you do, don’t listen to this split from Cough and Windhand, as the 3 tracks provided on Reflection of the Negative are the pinnacle of DOOM and they won't make you go any faster.
Both Cough and Windhand hail from Richmond, Virginia and both are doom metal uberlords. According to the Relapse Records website that released this split effort it is “premier doom at its absolute gloomiest”, and I couldn’t agree more.
First track is by Cough and ‘Athame’ is a 18 minutes and 31 seconds long down-tuned doom epos. One cliché you always find back in doom metal reviews is that every riff sounds like Tony Iommi himself provided them, but I can’t help myself by drawing that comparison when I listen to this monster of a track. Slow drums kick off a long musical journey including Hammond-sounding organs, vocal samples and thick-as-fuck-heavy-fuzzing guitar riffs. Have I mentioned already this is a very sloooow track? It is. It’s brilliant. When singer Parker Chandler starts his vocal parts it sounds like he’s just spewing out his guts while trying to squeeze in his lyrics through the piles of vomit. It’s gloom, it’s doom and it doesn’t get any better than this.
The other band Windhand provide 2 tracks to this split release, ‘Amaranth’ and ‘Shepherd’s Crook’, and they sound a bit more upbeat than Cough, though still very doom. ‘Amaranth’ kicks off with a bit more sludge in it, which is a nice addition to all the slow doom bits. Vocalist Dorthia Cottrell sounds eerie and spooky, as her high and pure voice tries to break a way through the huge wall of down-tuned bass and guitar, giving the impression she’s trying to summon the demons straight from hell. The guitars bring in more melody towards the end of this 7,5 minutes long track, which is very welcoming.
Windhand’s second track ‘Shepherd’s Crook’ instantly brings back those Iommi and Sabbath comparisons. It’s a very similar guitar sound to what Iommi used to sound like on those early Sabbath records. A little bit longer (nearly 11 minutes) than the other track, Windhand provides another down-tuned sounding doom/sludge track, with mysteriously sounding keyboard effects fading in and out of the mix. The solo-ing guitar parts in the second half of the song bring similarly to ‘Amaranth’ more melody in the mix. It tends to sound a bit repetitive towards the end though, even though this is a characteristic trait of the doom metal genre.
Of this split release the Cough track has my preference, but Windhand’s 2 tracks are definitely of high quality as well. It’s just hard when you have a huge 18 minutes long mountain to top in front of you. But if you like your music doom and gloom, you should definitely get Reflection of the Negative as it’s a well-produced high quality release. Just make sure you’ll sit down comfortably somewhere, holding a nice drink and with some lighted candles around you when you listen to this.
