We have two similar, yet different acts here, the first one being Connecticut's sludge/drone/doomers Sea Of Bones and the other New Hampshire's crust-punk/black metallers Ramlord, which sounds more like Neurosis in their early era, just with more of a blackened tinge. I say that both acts seem similar because regardless of genres, they both seem to be going for the same style of sludge and doom influence on this EP.
Sea Of Bones haven't had a great deal of records, certainly not as many as Ramlord; but they do have the potential to go quite far if they continue to do exactly what I'm hearing here. They consider their band to be “a dissonant wall of sound” and would compare themselves to Neurosis and Buried At Sea, which I would say is most comparable among the others here listed. It sounds exactly like that, feeling like a literal fucking wave of monolithic thunder, replete with hoary roars and what feels like a great fog. When I listen to the record, I feel like I'm in the middle of a storm and about to be demolished by a tidal wave of grease, slime and sludge. There is a bit of a calm after the storm however, which allows the piece to breathe well.
Ramlord definitely pump doom into their performance and I'm getting a sort of blackened punk feel, right from the vocals especially. There's even a bit of death grunt to be had, fronting a performance that feels just as foggy as the other. Ramlord aren't big on sludge, but there's definitely a pounding sense of doom here and that's going to be what matters as a whole. The track does feature a big kick as it continues, observing a much different atmosphere than what we got with Sea Of Bones. You can really hear the punk roaring in along with a big tempo change that completely wipes over the doom and almost carries as sense of grindcore with it. Then the doom comes back in, albeit with a sort of celebratory node. It feels like they're having a little bit of a party towards the end of this song, and that's fine.
Closing out this observation, I think both bands prove their worth rather well on an EP that should please fans of both varities of metal. It's not quite doom, sludge, punk, post, drone or black metal, but there are enough elements of each inside of this grimy snack mix to suit your tastes.
(2 Tracks, 20:45)
8/10
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