“Opium Lord make desolate doom-sludge with a coal black heart.” At least that’s what the press release says. And I can confirm this couldn’t be a better suited description of their music on this 2-track debut EP. This Birmingham band consists of the members Nathan, Neil, Bruce, Beckley and Luke, and they have previously made noise in the bands Mothertrucker, History of the Hawk and Stinky Wizzleteat. Opium Lord was born in 2012 and as they say themselves have been a “proper” band since December last year. They quickly found a label in Thirty Days Of Night Records and recorded this EP The Calendrical Cycle – Prologue: The Healer, which as the name suggests is the first instalment of a three part series.
The first track ‘Heroin Swirls’ contains some of the heaviest sludge/doom riffs I’ve ever heard, which would make Sleep and Electric Wizard fans drool with excitement. At least I nearly needed to borrow one of my kids’ old bibs whilst listening to this heavy sludge-infested doom. Nathan’s vocals instantly stand out from other and similar sounding bands from this genre, as he sounds very hardcore metal and at times he sounds like an angry Gollum straight out of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But fuck me, this is a heavy track! Listen to the riff kicking in after the slower bit around the 4 minutes mark. It’s hard to listen to this in public (as I usually do) and not bang your head insanely whilst throwing devil hands in the air.
Next track ‘Street Labs’ is shorter (just over 3.5 minutes) and it starts a little bit more uptempo with some extreme heavy guitar riffing over a slow very groovy drum rhythm. Then Gollum pops in again after a minute in the track, but Nathan quickly changes to more brutal screaming and grunting again. Of the two tracks this one is the weaker one, but still very good. It’s just hard to beat the heaviness of ‘Heroin Swirls’.
Opium Lord have come to the world of heavy doom/sludge with two tracks that would interests anyone with a passion for sheer heaviness. They couldn’t have made a better appearance and I for one can’t wait to hear the two follow up releases to this prologue. Just like Lord of the Rings, it would hopefully make a very entertaining trilogy.
Support your scene and buy this for only £1.79. That’s cheaper than a sandwich. Go on!
