sea bastard

Reviews don’t typically have back-stories, but bear with me for a quick paragraph. I had heard that the new Primitive Man split was coming out on vinyl and it was being released by one of my favorite cassette labels, Dry Cough, and got excited for both parties. The promo dropped into my inbox and on my first day as a member of the Nine Circles team, I staked my claim for my first review I was going to WOW them with. Slam-dunk, next up — amateur internet metal critic domination. The next day I started getting everything ready — pencil, detective-style moleskin notepad and the promo download. Then, I realized there’s only three songs on the LP. Three fucking songs. Two from Primitive Man, one from Sea Bastard. I’m kinda fucked and you can see the need for this seeming pointless back-story. This is the origin of a doomed mission.

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Clocking in at 34 minutes for two songs, this transatlantic split record from California’s Keeper and the U.K.’s Sea Bastard will please fans of plodding, evil doom metal. It sounds like the two bands are competing to see who can stretch out their song more, as one side of the split is slow and the other is…slower. Both sides of the album meditate on the same riff for eight to ten minutes at a time, turning it over, inspecting it, wringing out every bit of feeling they can from it. It takes patience to listen to this split, but it’s worth it. Continue reading →