Winter

Into Darkness/Eternal Frost (MVD)
by Craig Regala

Wow. I’ve heard about this and it really is a bell-ringer that hit the doom gong in a strong and new way (they started in ’88 and hit the shelves in ’90 on Future Shock). The records influenced like-minded souls (blackened and not), a slow, grind-inflected deathly thud subtracting the rock and roll part and adding more coagulated crush and heavy drone ambiance. So if Sabbath was doom for rockers, this is doom for the hardcore/crust aesthetic. In ’99 it got a rebirth on Nuclear Blast, having lain dormant, Godzilla-style, waiting to be awoken again for a new century.

I’ve limited comparisons. but it seems like the kinda thing that makes historical sense brewing up a half decade after the second side of Black Flag’s My War. When they speed up, its less “rocking-out” than the brutal struggle to free yourself from suffocation, like Hellhammer caught in a lava undertow. The vocals growl, but stay on the articulate side of the Cookie Monster thing; limited but really effective. One band that’s been carrying this torch would be the mighty Electric Wizard, especially on Dopethrone. Albeit, they have some classic dirtied up hard rock/doom in their DNA. If you have any interest in this sorta thing, snap it up. It’s a limited edition of 2000, distributed through the MVD folks.
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