(((O))) Review: Cosmic Reaper – Bleed the Wicked, Drowned the Damned

Are we having more sludge, more ominous approaches, and more doomy attacks that are waiting for us? Well, if the answer is yes, you’ve come to the right place as we enter into the deep, darker territories from North Carolina’s own Cosmic Reaper. This band has been around since 2017 which considers Thad Collis on lead vocals and guitar, Garrett Garlington on bass, Jeremy Grobsmith on drums, and Pete Snasdell on drums.

The band have put of their first EP entitled Demon Dance back in September of 2019, followed by the sole self-titled full-length debut in March of 2021. And now, they’re back with vengeance and filled with electrical volts, sparking inside their hearts with their latest follow-up Bleed the Wicked, Drown the Damned.

When you hear a title like that, you may think of the Hammer Horror films in the late 60s, early ‘70s, or one of the slasher films in the ‘80s when it was rising in that time frame. If you think they’re going to do pull a Disney princess songs which is the “I want” bullshit nonsense, guess again. They ain’t pulling that crap, this here is the real deal and giving the corporate falsetto mouse, the big giant middle finger!

Released on the Heavy Psych Sounds label, their new album will send shivers down your spine with brutal guitar riffs, psychedelic hallucinations, sonic altitude, and following in the footsteps of Cathedral, Candlemass, The Gates of Slumber, and Electric Wizard. Its almost as if you want to dig out those records you have in the milk crates, which I mean the golden-era of the swirling Vertigo label, Rise Above Records, and the Noise label.

I almost wanted to compare them to early Sabbath, because it would be too much of a cop-out, this is the good shit that the Reaper’s have put out. When I think of the rumbling turned slowed-down groove of ‘Bloodfeather’, I had this feeling that Collis himself is turning himself into a darker version of Peter Hammill from Van der Graaf Generator, continuing where he had left off during the In Camera sessions, but with a rising sound that bursts through the tidal waving sections.

I mean, Collis has done his homework, top to bottom, and knows the source material well enough to give those electrical jolts, a shocking surprise! The spacey turned gothic sounds behind ‘Dwelling’ has this sense of loss, walking in the middle of post-apocalyptic town that is filled with decay, smell, and destruction.

You have its militant drums, reverbing vocals through the Leslie speakers, and giving you a sense of what has happened. It has some similarities to King Crimson’s two-parter ‘Inner Garden’ that comes to mind from the THRAK album at first, but the temperature starts to rise with its post-rock attitude from the late ‘70s, early ‘80s as the new wave begins to hit.

You almost could say it’s a nod to Bauhaus, but once the band starts cooking, they cook hard and add more fuel to the fire as it segues into the roaring beast on ‘Perfect Organism’. When I think of this track, you can almost imagine this song being played in the survival horror video games between the Dead Space franchise and Cronos: The New Dawn.

They are writing their own alternate score to those two games, with attitude and menacing arrangements. How doomy can you get? Pure doomy! When I looked at the cover, I was completely taken aback on how fucking awesome it is. It’s like something straight out the adult illustrated fantasy magazine, Heavy Metal that comes to mind.

As a geek myself, I imagine they read the comics for inspiration during the making of the album or watch the 1981 movie multiple times. I have always a spot for doom metal because I want it cooked medium rare with stir fry veggies and massive amounts of wasabi sauce in the middle of the Cosmic Reaper’s new album. Will I be waiting for their next album? Who knows. But this is a massive cannon blast, waiting to happen at the right time, at the right place.