ninehertz

For the majority of us, bands and fans alike, in our own corner of the underworlds of the extreme metal plains that we call doom, we found our own individual paths here, to find we became addicted or infected, an end point within which we now happily wallow within its undergrowth. For a very select few, they were born here, a living embodiment where the whole ethos runs through them as blood. Prime among this elite company are Coltsblood.

They are the epitome of our beloved genre and have been for all of their 15 years. Now, with the defining statements of their Into the Fathomless Abyss and Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness albums, both towering landmarks of long form doom, the whole world is awake to the evidence. And now we're blessed with their third, Obscured Into Nebulous Dusk, released via the renowned Translation Loss Records.

It is what we know of them, expect of them, but then more so - funeral doom honed through unwavering commitment and lived experience. Take Waning of the Wolf Moon, pure primal force and feral growls from the off, shuddering to an almost halt just as quickly, erecting a formidable base from which to launch forays of wailing guitar, battering drums and shrieks from the dark.

There are four songs across forty odd minutes, and there's never a moment where its oppressive yet grand atmosphere subsides. There's a permanent black cloud above, a denser gravity at play below, an experience of being slowly crushed under its weight. Transcending the Immortal Gateway is more introspective, pushing comparisons into Bell Witch or Mizmor territories.

More to the point however, we're in the realms of funeral doom forerunners and greats, and it'd be to miss the point to compare further - because Coltsblood are in that select class themselves. And this is their defining statement, an album of prodigious darkness, doom stretched and strained and purified to its most concentrated form - an album as epic and definitive as it is marvellous.