Haunted

Great gaping gadflies! How on God's green Earth has the dusky and spectral Sicilian doom outfit Haunted been so egregiously overlooked since releasing its magniloquent titular début masterpiece in '16?! Released on CD under Twin Earth Records, it features only five tracks topping the weigh station at forty-three minutes but fret not as they're all sultrily grinding and robust, thanks largely in part to the quintet's husky albeit ghostly female vocalist who, granted, is somewhat of a dead-ringer for Windhand's Dorthia Cottrel - and to a further extent, Benthic Realm's Krista Van Guilder - but truly, shouldn't that be encouraged as far as such satisfactorily sordid slow-burn doom is concerned?

Compounded by plump as all get out drumming which feels like it's resounding from within a mausoleum (or grimmer, a sepulcher) the rhythm section duly contributes to Haunted's gloomy rustic appeal alongside menacingly plodding guitar riffs, with their begrimed tone, and vocally enchanting sorceress-like invocations. The bass lines are fittingly monstrous; dig, with spade and shovel, the powerful and dominating opening line to "Watchtower", which rattles more than just wooden tables, chairs and lamps...not to mention old bones!

Curiously, it doesn't take long for the mystical Epicurean phenomenon we call synesthesia to rear its not-so-ugly head as the thick as molasses - maple syrup for Canuckskees - brooding lull of the guitar/ bass riffs vividly evokes similarly soothing fuchsia and violet hues as the sinister, older than old school cover art's. One could say the audio and visual senses coalesce to envelop the listener in a cozy "haunted" cocoon, which is why I'm lazily, if not unsettling-ly, entranced by this release, the more so thanks to the singer's darkly lustrous, ectoplasmic hymning. Subtly but portentously, it immediately conjures auditory recollections of Portishead's Beth Gibbons, always a good thing (for further unorthodox but sinuously sapphic trip hop-y metal, try to glean Freya's The White Witch; you shall thank me later or my name's not Chairthrower).

Spinning dream weaver leads sparsely populate the album, intermittently couched as they are, like on the mammoth, twelve minute title track. At the risk of oozing bromidic enthusiasm, I strongly suggest wigging out to the despondent and wavy intro guitar riff blackening "Slowthorn", as its sordidly slackened pentatonics smack of obvious albeit sagaciously limited Electric Wizard emulation/inspiration, a tricky and commendable feat considering its effortless, burnt-out ease.

Including a typically foreboding professorial ode to be-devilry introducing "Nightbreed" and out and out nerve-wracking wails starting off "Silvercomb" (issued earlier as a single) which sound as if echoing and rising from the walls of a deep hollow well, Haunted sufficiently creeks and creeps its first full-fledged time out, and should therefore appeal to fans of heavy psych rock as well, not just dredging, occult themed gloom and doom.

Considering Haunted's been bubbling in my drafts cauldron for what feels like ages, it's only just I finally expunge my portentous views in its regard, especially with All Saints Day drawing nigh. Heed my warning, make this your "thing on the doorstep" this year.

"There are things in Heaven and on Earth beyond the comprehension of Man; call them what you will, the occult, witchcraft, devil worship, [mordantly now] Satan!"