Guest Post: Fresh Rot from the Irish Underground, Part 2
OG Toileteer IronLawnMower once again opens his crypt of pure dankocity to tell us about the Holylands and how to get stoned to hell there with some of the best bands in Irish metal.
What be the fucking craic dear reader? I hope you’re keeping well. In the last article, I gave a general overview of some bands from the Northern Irish metal scene and got a good response. This time I’m entering the churning white, smoke-filled caverns of the doom underground. It’s no surprise we’d have so many bands of this ilk up here because although the stereotype proclaims we’re a not just a nation of heavy drinkers, but most of us are absolute dope fiends. No sesh is complete without the bar of shit hash after all. So break out the £5 metal pipe you bought in Rip-Off and prepare to have your ears massaged by…
It doesn’t take a genius to work out who Elder Druid are influenced by. Heavy classic Sabbath riffage with a heavy Sleep/High on Fire touch and a little bit of psychedelia around the edges to create a thick enjoyable sound for the ears. Mentally altered or not, you’re in for a fantastic time when you put on Magicka on and stare at the spliff smoking demon dude on the cover.
Imagine what tectonic plates moving would sound like in music form, and you’re pretty close to Nomadic Rituals. This isn’t your average, every-day heavy. This is “Holy fuck there goes Japan” heavy. This is “I am now standing in a pile of rubble that used to be my house” heavy. This is “I have been forever deprived of my sense of hearing” heavy. This IS heavy. This band constructs wall upon wall of thick black sludge around you as you listen to hook-a-licious riffs emanating from guitars down-tuned so low the open string notes register on the Richter scale. Nomadic Rituals are the band I think of when I think of destruction. Fun factoid: The first time I smoked the devil’s cabbage was at a NR show with them and this next band on the bill.
Weed Priest hailing from Galway bring back the Sleep-like swagger of Elder Druid, but this time with a healthy dosage of Electric Wizard thrown in for good measure. Massive sounding vocals play over an equally massive variety of extremely catchy riffs that know exactly how long to last to soak you completely without becoming repetitive to the point of boredom, unlike far too many stoner bands assuming their audience will be too baked to give a shit. Long song lengths allow Weed Priest to give their compositions time to evolve dynamically, like organic beings seeming to take on lives of their own. They did a split with fellow southern Doom deviants Astralnaut who are also worth a check.
As a penultimate offering we have long-running sludge act War Iron, another contender in the “stupidly heavy” category. War Iron’s secret though is the power derived from the bass guitar that sounds like it has a fuzz pedal on it, creating a deep swampy sludgy tone that brings to mind trudging through waist deep swamp water while wearing a full suit of heavy armour and carrying several tonnes of weight on your back while all your primary school teachers berate you and call you a disappointment. Interesting to note is the black metal-esque raspy vocals.
Finally, honourable mention must go to fresh-faced upstarts Korvid. The may have only formed a couple months ago, but they’ve already developed a unique sound for themselves, putting out an enjoyable live show and releasing the single “Solutions of War” and an accompanying music video. Peep that dank doom below.
Thanks again to IronLawnMower for this exciting exposé of Irish metal! I’ve linked to all the bands’ Bandcamp profiles in their names above, so be sure to check their pages out and buy some siqq jamz!
