There are just some bands that embody the underground almost too well. We’ve all seen plenty of bands come around that manage to truly encapsulate what a specific genre has to offer and then proceed to bring it all to life in such exquisite capacity, but it’s even amongst such talent that there are those that truly excel. Each sound has a select few to call its own. While the realms of sludge metal have been growing at a solid rate in recent times, there’s little argument to be had for the magnitude of intensity that Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean has offered us time and again. With the arrival of its forthcoming EP, the band’s caustic reputation is both continued and greatly solidified.

The deeper your go into the roiling madness that the underground has to offer in spades, you begin to find acts of a truly cult status with a sound that can only be described as inhospitable and downright horrific to become lost within. Joy and pleasure are not the goals of such creations, but, rather, a dark catharsis of sorts that can oftentimes fall into the realms of masochism. It’s almost as if the band in question is looking to punish the listener for wandering into the presence of its aural offensive. Such is what Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean can feel like with this new EP, “Let Us Not Speak of Them but Look and Pass On”, far from different, yet it still feels like the next natural step forward in this band’s ongoing evolution. Laden with riffs and overwhelming melodies that are terrifyingly juxtaposed by their trademark sludge metal that is nigh on uncompromising from the moment you enter the EP, it is here in just four tracks across twenty-eight minutes that Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean allows the listener to become fully immersed and subsequently crushed by something that sludge and doom metal try to achieve but rarely can: catharsis through obliteration.

In an unapologetic assault upon all the senses and remaining unyielding even unto the dying note of the EP, it’s here that this act continues to refine its sound to degree that is nothing short of lethal. “Let Us Not Speak of Them but Look and Pass On” is not a title that rolls off the tongue nor is it something that is meant to offer an escape. Rather, it’s here at every turn that we are left emulsified despite somehow, against all odds, begging for more.

“Let Us Not Speak of Them but Look and Pass On” releases on February 20th via Redscroll Records!

LISTEN to an advanced track from “Let Us Not Speak of Them but Look and Pass On” on Bandcamp here.

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