DWELLING BELOW - Wearisome Guardians
Transcending Obscurity Records
Back in the mid to late 2000s you had a new league of bands giving the sub-genre of Death Doom a new set of legs to stand on. The sound was cavernous and had a claustrophobic atmosphere ridden with filth. The riffs were slow and heavy but once in a while they became psychotic. The guitar soloing was unpredictable as in lighting strikes. Finally the vocals were bestial and the rhythm section were either perfectly timed or totally eradic. It was definitely Death Doom with some blackened bits slipped in for fun.
Now since then every year there's a new band reproducing the same sound over and over again with not much progressive changes. Also you still have a few of that old guard trying their best to stay relevant in a scene with so many imitators. Then there's the fans who buy (hopefully) the records / CDs who are like wow this new band is just as good as the band I liked last year.
Look I've never been accused of being jaded in the past but I have friends who are. They gave up on most new Extreme Metal a decade or so ago. I've always been the believer in new bands reinventing the old and giving it some open air to breath as well as infect the minds of young listeners. But as of now well this type of Death Doom has hit a brick wall just like most Black Metal and Old School Death Metal.
With all of that said here's the second album by the US Death Doom act DWELLING BELOW. They're a three piece act who started out in 2023 and are also together in a Prog Tech Death band called HIERARCHIES. The three guys are guitarist Nicholas Turner, bassist Anthony Wheeler and drummer / vocalist Jared Moran. Also these guys are in a ton of other bands especially Jared Moran.
These guys created a damm great sounding fifty plus minute dissonant Death Doom album.The musicianship is extraordinary. The soundscapes are all about dread as well as destruction. I've listened to at least a dozen full lengths this year doing this type of Death Doom style and I have to say this second album by DWELLING BELOW is the best. It also hits that brick wall I mentioned earlier. This is as best as it gets for this sub-genre. Everything after this one will be decent.
LISTEN HERE:
https://dwellingbelow.bandcamp.com/album/wearisome-guardians


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