ninehertz

In amongst an almighty last couple of months of doom releases and a spike in the resurgence in stoner rock, I haven’t had much time to allow death metal a look in on my playlist. But then a promo for Hrob came along and bundled its way to the front of my listening queue, demanding attention. From Slovakia, via the Memento Mori and Night Terror Records labels, I was completely drawn in.

After an intro track passes, a buzzing death metal makes me think its heading towards early Entombed territories, before descending into a darker place, a ghostly death-doom nether realm. It is slow and plodding but purposeful; its rare splurges forward at pace kicking you out from the enforced sluggishness.

The following Tiene Stromov is even better, fast paced to begin, it decomposes into something much swampier, yet with a mystical threat rather than clobbering you over the head. It is odd, in a good way, as whispery noises add to the noxious atmosphere. The combination with and contrast against the fast outbreaks feel powerful.

Perhaps best of all is on the penultimate track Zotročený Oheň which swaps between frenetic blasting death and the murkiest of statuesque death-doom. It flits back and forth with its pace and restraint, becomes wilder the longer it goes, a guitar soloing into the cosmos in amongst it all, getting better and better as it goes.

The contrasts in pace and the unsettling oddness to the slower elements are what makes Brána Chladu really stand out, a haunting otherworldliness present in the death-doom that is completely captivating.