ninehertz

Here’s a cool debut release from a new Welsh doom duo, with all instruments by one member and vocals the other. Surprisingly for essentially a demo release it's nine tracks deep.

There’s a lot going for it, which I’ll come to, but I want to get the elephant in the room out of the way so we can focus and end on the positives (for this is the overriding feeling when the album ends). The issue to address is its primary source of inspiration, and not an uncommon one for this type of music, heard too closely for comfort on several occasions.

Yep, it’s Electric Wizard, heard to some extent throughout, which is fine, but there are songs where it is too close (take Inevitable Pain which could be a Witchcult Today offcut). There’s a cover of We Hate You midway through too. Having just finished off writing a review of a HM-2 band covering Wolverine Blues, this is similar levels of pointless.

Right, that out of the way, I’ll drop the grumpy act because where they digress from singular inspiration the album really shines. The opener has promise in its doom groove, Ramesses styled (I know I know), but also fuzz laden, bringing in nods to Monolithian and some bluesy stoner riffs in the mire. There are tracks that bludgeon forth like a sludge juggernaut careering downhill, crashing into anything in its path.

There are moments that are vaguely psychedelic, another (interestingly right after the cover) an instrumental interlude of acoustic bass, bringing clear individuality. My favourite is probably the closing …Breathes the Life of Beauty with its strange ebb and flow, moving from wistful to downbeat, then on an upward inflection giving the merest hint of emotion and hope within its darkness.

I was maybe harsh focussing too much on the negatives here – it is a demo and many, many others have drunk from the Electric Wizard well in our doom world. Sadiowitch provide plenty of promise beyond this, where they can form their own identity, already providing its own riches.