#blackened sludge

[slashdementia7734]

[onlyhurtforaminute]

IMMORTAL BIRD-BIOLUMINESCENT TOXINS

[mrtva-vrana]

Witchden | Tomes of Madness Volume 1

March 2024

Bandcamp

[funeral-dust]

Body Void- Bury me beneath this rotting earth

[vinylspinning]

Unearthly Trance: Season of Séance, Science of Silence (2003)

It’s hard to accept that over 20 years have elapsed since I was handed a copy of Unearthly Trance’s Hadit demo at a Brooklyn North Six show they opened for Sons of Otis and Electric Wizard -- my friend who ran The Music Cartel label said, “just wait until you hear the finished record!”

Well I duly obtained a copy of the finished record, 2003’s Season of Séance, Science of Silence, albeit on CD format, before securing this limited-edition double vinyl pressing on Parasitic Records, and being reminded of the band’s precocious talents for grinding out blackened doom and sludge.

In my All-Music Guide review, I lamented that “Long Island’s Unearthly Trance arrived just in time to fill some of the void left by the sadly disbanded Warhorse,” and if you’ve never had the pleasure of sampling that colossal doom/sludge power trio from Worcester, MA, there’s no better time than today.

Well, after you finish reading this blog, of course ...

In that same Unearthly Trance review, I added that the “impossibly low-ended frequencies attained by expansive, snail-paced sludge-fests” like “Wandering Winter Winds,” and “The Aftermath Was Morbid” (held down by bassist Jay Newman and drummer Darren Verni) simply must be heard to be believed.

By contrast, more digestible ‘snacks’ like “When Anti-Humanity Flourishes” and “Black Heart/Black Lung” condensed main man Ryan (credited here as ‘Rion’) Lipynsky’s inventive riffs and mixed bag vocals (ranging from a hoarse rasp to tortured clean-singing) while upping the tempo to manageable thresholds.

But Unearthly Trance were still at their best when drawn-out, thrumming monoliths (each averaging nine-minutes) like “Raised by the Wolves” and “Mass of the Phoenix” (whose lyrics are credited to Aleister Crowley!) came perilously close to causing bowl-releasing disasters.

In other words (or rather, MY words in that ancient review), while certainly not for the faint of heart (nor the dangerously incontinent), Season of Séance, Science of Silence’s adventures in musical extremity achieved a promising start for Unearthly Trance.

(Which, by the way, still ranks among my favorite heavy metal band monikers of all time!)

From this point forward, the group would steadily tame and even finesse their corrosive sound (see this album’s closing “Pyre” for clues), without outright abandoning extremity, on the sophomore, In the Red, and, after signing with Relapse Records, follow-ups like The Trident, Electrocution, and V.

More Unearthly Trance: In the Red; plus Serpentine Path’s Serpentine Path.

[gehirntoture]

I call this "sex music" for my steamy playlist 🥵

[womenovmetal]

Maria Geisbert

Yatra

[darkenergyslivers]

N I B I R U - Padmalotus EP (2016)  // cover art by drummer LC Chertan

1. Krim

2. Ashmadaeva

3. Trikona

4. Khem (YT blocked in my country so here’s the BC link)