London-based stoner/doom duo Pombagira are a productive pairing. New album Flesh Throne Press [Svart] is their sixth album in just eight years, but have managed to create a two-disc, 90 minute engrossing monster. Themes covered range from “the dead and the necromantic discourse for conversing with ancestors,” while the title itself apparently “refers to the visceral experience of the grave dirt which presses in on the flesh,” which fits the mood of the record well.
The vocals from Peter Hamilton-Giles (Vocals, guitar) swing from haunting melancholic wail to almost Gregorian chant, his riffs swamped in layers of reverb and distortion until it’s a fuzzy drone. Carolyn Hamilton-Giles drums provide an equally languid backing track, but it’s a great pairing.
It’s densely heavy in the kind of Electric Wizard way yet provides of light and shade. The album shifts between quiet introspection and thick fuzzed-up walls of noise; 10 minute epics are interspersed with more serene and stripped back instrumental interludes to break up the journey and provide respite. There’s tinges of early Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd-esque psychadelica and even early prog rock thrown in to the mix.
It’s hard to nail down exactly what Pombagari’s sound like. There’s occasional psychadelica, drone, maybe even some shoe-gaze type territory. But whatever sub-genre you like, there’s plenty to enjoy about Flesh Throne Press (Svart) is spaced out, down tempo and very easy to immerse yourself in. Bottom line: It’s heavy, chilled and atmospheric. As long as you can cope with the 90 minute runtime, Flesh Throne Press is a great album for relaxing to and getting lost in.
7.5/10
DAN SWINHOE