Jackals' Feast Spins Dark Yarns Rooted in Soulful Americana
Here at Doom and Dead we shine a light on underrated doom, drone, and psych releases that deserve more attention. This month’s pick is NJ doom outfit Jackals' Feast.
Jackals’ Feast aimed to play straight-up doom metal… but strange things happen when the blues runs in your veins. Like whiskey aged in an oak barrel, the music took on the flavors of the band’s other interests. Horror and gothic Americana leeched their way in, and the resulting brand of doom metal sounds like nothing else. The band’s debut album, Lost in the Forest and Tormented by Demons, is a collection of tragic tales, each more hopeless and tortured than the last. Now let’s grab a spot by the fire and take a swig of what Jackals’ Feast has to offer.
The album opens on Prayer to Crom. Caveman beats lead us into this epic ballad. The song is constructed from slow, lumbering riffs scraped raw with bluesy vocals. The band conveys all the despair and resolve of the barbarian’s struggle on a frigid mountainside. The vocals ooze with pain and betrayal. Energy builds and that overdrive kicks in, rocking us out to the finish.
The fuzz has rolled in. With the title track, Lost in the Forest and Tormented by Demons, we find ourselves alone in the woods caught in a hopeless situation. This 8-minute behemoth is the cornerstone of the album. It’s a grim plodder with a dense atmosphere and riffs guaranteed to trigger stank face in 9 out of 10 doomheads. Some legendary noodling on the strings drives the stakes even higher. Eventually, the drums abandon the track and we float through a hypnotic drone.
Dig Your Own Grave is true to its name.The monstrous riffs take on a little more twang, framing the vocalist’s resonant voice. It’s a one-on-one execution in the woods with no means of escape. The bluesman croons about swinging a shovel for your own burial pit. It’s heart-wrenching, gravel-gulping doom slathered in BBQ sauce. Mashed Potato Johnson would be proud.
For Death and Glory is a call to arms in the face of certain doom. The orcs have charged the gates and your walled city is falling around you. Faced with the annihilation, you no choice but to battle onwards. Galloping riffs and throaty cries spur us on to both glory and destruction.
With Blood and Black Magic (Tower of the Elephant) is the sorrowful saga of a being who once soared the cosmos, but is now trapped and tortured on Earth. Jackals’ Feast creates an ambiance of suffering. The haunting track cracks open near the end, offering a glimpse at the protagonist’s searing rage. A spell is cast and vengeance is taken for a lifetime stolen.
Get ready for another sleepless night struggling under the burden of the unknowable. The Crushing Weight of the Infinite is an out-of-body journey beyond place and time. Fuzz is cast over the landscape like starlight. Hulking riffs drone on in boundless space. The protagonist slides back into his body, unfulfilled and suffocating under the enormity of his incomprehension. The singer’s evocative storytelling seems to channel Eddie Vedder at times. It’s a powerful lamentation you won’t want to miss.
These songs are vignettes from the lives of characters who lost it all. It’s crushing doom metal informed by a variety of other genres and rendered with a fuckton of atmosphere. Amid the gloom, Sabbathian riffs trudge hand in hand with soul-splitting blues. Go check out the album. Failing to shove this bad boy into your earholes would be a mistake.