Ah, a bit of worthy doom for the day. Although Waverly Hills claim to be strongly inspired by Rigor Sardonicus, I'd like to skip over that and make a different comparison. Do you remember our good old friend, Nortt? I see that you do. Much like our Danish companion, Waverly Hills peristaltically deliver a stiflingly cavernous branch of doom full of dense guitars and even thicker reverb. Vocals are deep and vast; inhuman bellows of buried leviathans. Although I don't believe that the drum beat ever changes, it was lovingly chosen, emitting a truly ponderous crash. Unlike our ongoing comparison, however, Waverly Hills do not dilute their sound with questionable ambient filler - once The Nurse begins, it doesn't let up until it's done. The album is rough and simple, but not in a baby's first doom album way. No, it hints at a single-minded channeling of what makes funeral doom worthwhile. Tossing aside pretensions at progression or complexity, Waverly Hills focus on imbuing every aspect of their music with pure, suffering damnation. It also gets an extra handful of inverted crosses for the child's laughing in "The White Plague" (I wonder if that has anything to do with Frank Herbert's book?) because kids are fucking creepy.
I have to revoke some of those crosses due to the lackluster title track and the fact that this is really for funeral doom lovers only. Otherwise, this gets the meta seal of approval. If you've ever caught yourself humming the catchy refrains of a Nortt, Tyranny, or Senthil single, you'd do best to go out right now and pick up The Nurse off your nearest Starbucks easy-listening rack.
Verdict: Win [4/5] (removes hope in seconds!)
http://www.myspace.com/waverlyhillsdoom
No comments:
Post a Comment