Friday 8 August 2014

Shadow Of The Torturer - Dronestown (CD Review)


01.Indianapolis - Ukiah
02.We Are A Righteous People - Guyana
03.Afterlife - Cities Of The Damned

Mikey (Guitar/Vocals)
VB (Guitar)
B Drone (Bass)
Timmy (Drums/Synth)


Seattle band began life in 2006 as a side project for Aldebaran vocalist Mikey Brown, when he later left the band he decided to carry this one on full time.
They have released a couple of albums/ep's with various different musicians backing Mikey all original music except for a couple of covers of songs by Black Sabbath and Pagan Alter.




First 18 minute slab is 'Indianapolis' the dark distorted sounds and low growl of the vocals give this a much more gothic/doom feel.
The synth and chorus effect of the keyboards definatley keep a dark ambience running throughout, later the pace picks up wwhen the guitar and drums comes crashing in.

Another different style is prevalant with the 21 minute monster that is 'We Are Righteous People', the majority of this piece seems to be made up of samples from radio broadcasts and movie soundtracks, this is layered over a slow and pounding, endless doom laden riff with each chord backed by a crash from the drums.

The final piece, a mere 16 minutes is called 'Afterlife' this is the slow sludge drone style that i was expecting from the whole album, full of gutteral screams and downtuned power chords, its thumps it way second by second like a wrecking ball through a solid wall of steel.

Rating 9/10
For fans Of: Sunn O))), Earth, Boris, Triptykon

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