EP REVIEW: Slimelord – Moss Contamination

UK Death-Doom mob SLIMELORD are back to follow their demo (read my review HERE) with a new EP. Out now via Dry Cough Records, Seed Of Doom Records and Sewer Rot Records.

Eerie soundscapes introduce the EP with a festering feeling of depravity. Guitars reverberate atop thunderous bass and pounding drums, drawing in a spectral and funereal Death-Doom assault. Creepy leads spew atop the vicious rhythms and open a cavernous atmospherics gloriously. The very obvious abilities of the band give a psychedelic flow to the music as juggernaut riffs and maniacal leads blend into a singular and eruptive display of offal whilst the hammering of drums punches the music into overdrive alongside some truly gut-wrenching vocals. Dreary and daunting, the lurking sense of dread is ineffable yet there is quite a lot happening, rather than the more typically minimal sombreness of Death-Doom.

Perhaps their work in Cryptic Shift has caused a more progressive injection into Slimelord to occur, or perhaps the vision all along was to take this further than morbid swamp sounds. Springing to life like a lucid dream in which one awakens in some festering realm, this odiously malevolent presence takes us into the deepest expanses of doom on “Puddle Dweller” which is an absolutely phenomenal song. As has consistently been the case, this is a band whom utilise interesting bass warps that propel the sound into otherworldly oddness which complements the savage guitars gorgeously. Slimelord have undoubtedly worked very hard to become such a tight unit in terms of performance and execution. This EP is definitely a worthwhile slab of mud-ridden Death-Doom that reeks of the crypt.

A really killer cut of old school Death-Doom with some interesting angles taken. Perhaps some of the more technical flourishes can seem a touch out of place at times, but overall this is still fetid and dank Death Metal of very good quality.