ninehertz

Welcome to Earthbong’s latest chapter of world-shuddering doom and sludge, a band who have been refining this sound across multiple releases in the last decade, with Salutations to the Cultivators displaying their growth and confidence in abundance.

It is evident immediately in the crackling doom goodness of the opener Bug, with interchangeable gruff and screeched vocals familiar to sludge, but with an individuality through a believable venom and misanthropic delivery, whilst the guitars spread tremors with elephantine feet. This is sludge/doom of the modern world and of a quality that sits them alongside Bongripper and their ilk.

The Rutger Hauer sample (Blade Runner; you know the one) at the start of Third Eye is too overused to make the impact it presumably was intended to, but from there the song flowers through a combination of miserable doom and surprisingly brightening backing guitar that allows some air into the otherwise noxiously clouded enclosed space. They stay true to the cause in the long run however as it collapses under the weight of the riff that flattens everything just past its midway point.

The relatively short Harvester offers a release through delicate guitars and an easy-going droning doom approach, before the closing Herbal Saints returns to the thick toned plodding standard, propped up by the percussion, and with a nice, peaceful lead out to end the album with a smile.

Earthbong don’t offer anything particularly new to the genre, but with tracks like Bug, and its effortless heaviness that’ll rattle your insides, they don’t need to.