TAR PIT - Tomb Of Doom review

TAR PIT - Tomb Of Doom

Sludgelord Records




Thankfully I don't get hangovers from drinking anymore or this would've been misery early in the morning on my initial listen. Not that I don't drink anymore because that would be bullshit. I just drink good quality craft IPA beers now. I've been doing it for ten years now thanks to a good friend who got me to switch from quantity to quality. Hey I can afford it. But on this particular morning I was not in the mood even though I had a deadline which was "Shit! I'm a month behind in reviewing stuff."


Fast forward to a week later and I'm drinking. But the music, which sounds like my cool 70's hard rock output ground down to liquid and added to a molasses drip into my veins, is still loud as fuck. Here we have the debut album by TAR PIT, a sludgey, doom band hailing from Portland, Oregon. I've seen a band photo and they don't look like hipsters, well there is one big fat beardo guy in a WINDHAND shirt? But lets move on because I'm kidding around.

My first thought was what, where's the photo of the La Brea Tar Pit model kit with the mastodon stuck in the tarpits? Like this one below which I had as a kid?

If you're gonna raid your dad's record collection for influences you might as well ask him what else was up in the 70's. Be that as it may this here is airy hypnotic doom minus the female vocals which normally accompany it as the trend goes. Yeah after a few years you get tired of that female white privilege thing. But hey TAR PIT, points for a cool name to start with. Second part, huge points for not being an atypical sludgey doom act from the Northwest. I'm thinking someone in this band heard some Leslie West. 


In the end I'm loving every second of this release. The sustained breaks which do not repeat past grooves but introduce new ones. The vocals aired out as if they're cries from the past. The total abandonment of stoner cliche grooves and incorporation of a touch and go fuck yourself we'll do it our way attitude towards the song structuring. Even when they're doing an obvious Geezer Butler SABBATH-ian bass groove on "Bruja", they rip it a new asshole. Seriously, and yes I can be, this band as well as release are what you want to hear a lot in 2019. 


https://thesludgelord.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-of-doom

https://www.facebook.com/tarpitdoom/