The Gowanus Canal, located on the western side of Brooklyn, is perhaps one of the finest examples of mankind’s disregard for the environment. A highly toxic body of water that is known for having different, almost cake-like layers of fecal matter, chemical and industrial waste lining every inch of its passage. As a result, this defiling of nature has seeped its way into the local underground music scene, resulting in Clouds Taste Satanic. With a sound comparable to a mash up of Electric Wizard, Black Sabbath and even certain portions of Earth, this four piece, instrumental project have unleashed their newest full length, aptly titled Your Doom Has Come. A six-song audio voyage that absolutely delivers on all fronts. If resin-caked guitar strings, mountain sized bass lines and plodding drums are your thing, look no further than these peddlers of Stoner-Doom metal. Upon receiving this dense wall of sound, I immediately went online and started delving into who these diabolical summoners of riffage are. But apparently, these guys are still simmering beneath the surface of the New York metal scene, which sort of boggles my mind a bit. I know it takes a while for some bands to get the credit they deserve, but hot damn. This is a case of people really needing to get on the fucking ball with this project.
Your Doom Has Come straddles a few, very fine lines in terms of what is delivered on this release. Never really a true “Doom Metal” band, these four have managed to conjure up a pretty wicked hybrid of straight Stoner Rock, mixed in with a dread-filled, paranoia-induced take on Doom. With the opening track “Ten Kings,” Clouds Taste Satanic lay down a thick wall of sound that sets the tone for the rest of the album – dark, foreboding and almost apocalyptic at certain points. While the first track is chalk full of mammoth-sized riffs, the album itself doesn’t really reveal it’s twisted, hallucinogenic visions until the second song, “One Third of The Sun,” explodes. With its buzz-sawed guitar sound and earth-sundering rhythm section, I immediately fell in love with the unique direction that Clouds Taste Satanic maneuver through. It’s really here on this track that their intended message really starts to permeate within the music. A gnawing, foreboding sense of dread oozes out of the speakers, filling this song – and the whole album – with a Dario Argento-influenced atmosphere.
“Beast from The Sea” marks the halfway point of the album, at least in numerical listing. The band pull a fast one right out of the gate, with an almost grindcore sounding guitar riff for the first few seconds. And while I halfway expected this album to take a very drastic chance of pace, I was quickly shown the error of my ways. The band slides into a creepy, guitar-driven segment, all while maintaining the trademark heaviness that I had come to find that this band exudes. Much like a peddler selling worthless baubles to an unsuspecting customer, Clouds Taste Satanic revel in tricking you as to what they really have in store. An intensely catchy guitar rhythm that’s supported by the second guitar summoning some darkly psychedelic witchcraft. In fact, as I was digesting this album, that exact term, “psychedelic witchcraft,” kept creeping up into my mind to describe this band’s sound. For such a relatively young and unknown musical act in the underground scene, these four seem to be incredibly comfortable exploring the sonic horizons and ravines that they traverse as a group.
“Out of The Abyss” churns out a methodic, ode-to-Black Sabbath opening before sliding quite comfortably – and cleverly – into a heavy Queens of The Stone Age-styled segment on this fourth track. While not ripping QOTSA off in an outright manner, “Out of The Abyss” just has that same immense, dirty rock n’roll vibe that Songs For The Deaf contained on certain tracks. A notion that showcases this band’s over-riding goal to not just create something “crushing” or “heavy,” but wholly original. As this bastardized version of rock breaks down into feedback, the song collapses into a darkened world thanks to a insidiously creepy bass line. A segment that had me caught up in a walking nightmare of a beast cloaked in the shadows, waiting for me to take one step over the line into it’s world.
I have to admit that up until this point, I was impressed on all fronts with this band’s sound, but was still wondering when the real Doom Metal portion would drop down from the sky. Thanks to the fifth song, “Dark Army,” my wicked pleas for aural decimation were answered in the form of what is the most prototypical Doom song on this album. One very clear fact comes to light with this song in regards to the nature of not just the album, but the band itself. While the song clocks in at a respectable six minutes and forty seconds, Clouds Taste Satanic seem to have a case of ADHD. They’re not content with just repeating the same riff over and over again, or even just suturing parts together to draw the song out. They understand the intrinsic need for a song to flow properly, which is shown off with such organic bravado in the end segment. Even the last song, “Sudden…Fallen,” plays off this – dare I say – professionalism in how they portray and play their music. The guitar line and drum beat seem to be challenging God himself to get his ass off the throne and come do battle with these demons of audio pillaging. The band reveal every card up their sleeve; perhaps even call in some dark favors in order to construct this monolithic closing piece. As the last song, the final nail in the coffin, it speaks volumes as to the bands intentions, not to mention the feelings one undertakes while listening to Your Doom Has Come. The entire album is permeated with this feeling of dropping peyote in the desert and watching the world wash away into a drug-induced journey. One that navigates some pretty dark passages of the mind, only to suddenly burst forth into different hues of color that one swears they can literally taste and touch.
I was, in all honesty, extremely startled and shocked by just how damn good this album is. While these cultists of the end-times hail from Brooklyn, my own stomping grounds, I was shocked to not have heard about them before I was sent this release. It’s not like I’m at every show or in touch with every band in this borough of NYC, but generally speaking, I have a pretty good grasp on what’s going on here. So to have this band and record unexpectedly drop into my lap, with no advance warning as to just how colossal it was going to be, left me picking my jaw up off the floor. Clouds Taste Satanic have crafted a stunningly complex piece of sonic abuse with Your Doom Has Come. Each song has its own vibe and tone, but always feels centered within the scope of the album’s overall feeling. The sense of drug-induced fear, otherwordly horror and darkness ride forth on this record much like a steed sent straight from hell. Clouds Taste Satanic have quietly been working their dark magic for some time in preparation for this album; the end result is one that they should be greatly proud of and walk with their collective heads held high. I’m sensing that Your Doom Has Come is just the first ripple of a big rock being dropped into the lake of extreme music, thanks to this band. Seek this album out at all costs, people, and brace yourselves to be destroyed.
