When thinking about the extreme and heavy music scene from Iceland, black metal springs athletically straight to the forefront of the mind. However, given the existence of bands such as Sleeping Giant, they also have a very vibrant, and excessively fuzzy, stoner/doom/sludge scene. Seemingly sprouting hairs from all angles, it’s time to see what the colossus that is Slor have for us on this, their second full length album.
A trick of the genre, and one that Slor employ well here, is to juxtapose the low production, near seismic and fizzily fuzzy bass progressions against a more polished drum and vocal sound. Stick your guitars somewhere in between and, bob’s your uncle, it’s a torrent of horribleness that is an absolute joy to listen to.
Consisting of four lengthy tracks, complete with a longing, psychedelic vocal presence, this feels like an album that you stick your head into rather than an album that approaches you and enters your consciousness via the weird shaped fleshy things stuck to the side of your head. Comparable to Slomatics and Yob, with a bit of decelerated High On Fire thrown in, tracks like opener ‘Universal Calling’ and the epic ‘Supergod’ stand out.
Slor are a band that need to be seen live as, although they have successfully captured the Richter scale intensity of their humungous sound on record, having it blasted full force into your torso would be another thing altogether.
‘Eternal Mirror’ is a well crafted pilgrimage through a granite landscape, and one that leaves you wanting to wander rather than reach the end. Highly recommended for the most fuzzy of fuzzheads.
Best Paired With: An Industrial Strength Lint Roller, Organ Rearrangement and A Big Bag of Herbs.
Reviewed by Jaff.
Slor – Eternal Mirror is out now (independent).
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