There’s a special fire that lives in every unique brand of metal that helps one sound stand out tremendously amongst the ocean of others. Whether it’s a devilishly slow burn or a raging fire that seeks naught but consumption, each sound has its own type of excellence that cannot be denied. When it comes to death-doom, it’s that slow burn that can be particularly fascinating in more ways than one, and they have been something that has kept the style going extremely strong for me for the over year-long streak that the style has me going on. With their debut, Slough of Despair only furthers it.

The art of the slow burn is something that we could sit here and talk about all day, but there aren’t very many bands that are able to pull it off with such precision that it’s beyond terrific to witness as it can easily be used for many devices from something grand to something else that could be related on a smaller scale but with no less magnitude. When it comes to bands like Slough of Despair, the concept of that very same slow burn is something that they take to a great extent that they take even further as the entirety of the debut work, “Catacombs of Terror”, brings that very same terror is something that they already have a tremendous grasp on. Every inch of this work is satisfying right unto the very end as Slough of Despair knows exactly where to dig their daggers in order to achieve maximum effectiveness such that it’ll be by the end of what they’ve explored all there is in the vast “Catacombs of Terror” that you’ll be left as another brittle cadaver like those that you had seen all throughout everything that this album puts forth. It’s an absolute slog the likes of which many death-doom acts can only ever hope to achieve, but it’s in every inch of these dark catacombs that we see Slough of Despair rise as something that is awesome to behold while showing us that it clearly has the potential to rise to become something else that’s much more and becoming something that can only be considered as maddeningly good. Right from the beginning to the slow grinding halt of the end, “Catacombs of Terror” does nothing but get one excited for this brand new name of the scene that has so much potential you cannot but help hope that they become the next thing that the death-doom scene eats up instantaneously, and if it doesn’t it’ll be a tragedy for the ages.

Works like this with such quality to be had are far from few and far between even if this particular sound is the exact opposite, and that only further shows the excellence that’s happening within the entirety of the talent that comes forth to make Slough of Despair something that absolutely demands to be heard on every level. “Catacombs of Terror” is a punishing experience right from the very onset, but it’s a satisfying trip that has given us what could very well become a name that will transform into something that’s all but essential in the modern landscape of death-doom.

LISTEN to “Catacombs of Terror” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Slough of Despair on Facebook here.