It has been quite a long time since I last sat down and attempted to listen to something on the drone end of the Doom/Sludge Metal spectrum.
Instrumental solo project, The Sorrow Of Being Immaculate, dropped their debut album, Church Music for Satanists (Drone Alone Productions), and it is quite an experience.
“Church Music For Satanists” starts off the same-named album and sets expectations immediately. There is a consistent riff that plays all the way through the near-six-minute track. A similar, more high-pitched guitar lead starts to round out the atmosphere from the one-minute-and-forty-second mark through to the end.
“Behemoth Of Hallucinations” follows a similar formula here with an ever-repeating low tone guitar riff and leads atop that layer but is also quite repetitive as well. One slight difference in this track is the low end riff does stop so that a second layer of the lead riff, with distortion, kicks in.
“My Temporary Heartbeat” brings some emotions about in the lead guitar riff that plays throughout the entire track. The low end simply is just made of open note chords with distortion to give that “wall of sound” appeal. Unlike the other tracks on Church Music for Satanists, this one does not evolve at all and just fades out at the end.
In terms of a Doom/Sludge/Drone Metal approach, The Sorrow Of Being Immaculate went all out and executed well. I prefer having some level of percussion, so the lack of payoff or climax in any of the tracks was pretty evident after multiple listens. The last two tracks being remixes of the first two tracks – in the sense it was re-mixed but nothing about the tracks themselves are different from the earlier renditions – was also a bit of a let down.
Overall, Church Music for Satanists is a good start for The Sorrow Of Being Immaculate. There is certainly some room to grow the sound but still remain at their roots and keep it drone. Start this album, shut all the lights off in your room, and lay in the darkness as you are swept away by the fuzz.
Buy the album here:
https://dronealoneprods.bandcamp.com/album/the-sorrow-of-being-immaculate-church-music-for-satanists-ep
6 / 10
TIM LEDIN