Beneath Oblivion

"Have you ever gone out, picked a fight and got your arse whipped, just to feel better? Have you ever just needed to hear something shatter? Have you ever played chicken or roulette or innocent or dumb? Have you ever truly contemplated murder? Held the gun or knife in your hand and turned it over; cold, hard, and furiously numb? Have you ever screamed? Really screamed? Until you couldn't even hear yourself any more?

This is what Beneath Oblivion is made of.

Beneath doom, beneath depression, beneath despair, beneath horror. There is an emotion emanating from this music that has no word in the English language. To have felt it live was transfiguring. I walked in to listen, and left without need of ears. Something moves in these sounds which is ancient and pristine. It is as blunt as primordial trauma, but slices clean as a surgical knife.

It's fury metal. It's tomb metal. It's an act of defiance and an art of transcendence. It's a howl. It takes what you love about BUZZOV-EN, Grief, Cianide, Sunn O))), Sleep and EYEHATEGOD and consumes them in a black fire of wretchedness and loss.

Fair warning: In the right pair of headphones, one listen will peel your face clean off."

"Enter the latest addition to the ultra slow, painful, hate-filled doom camp. Just when I was totally burned out with hearing these types of bands, a new crop popped up with new vision, like Indian, Ocean, and Graves at Sea, and totally took the slow heaviness to new frontiers. Beneath Oblivion continues in that vein, and manages to inject fresh life into their killer down-tuned riffs.

This album is only three songs, but it’s a good 45 minutes, and there’s enough variety and dynamics thrown in to keep things interesting. The most obvious comparison is the Boston based sludge/doom legends Grief, although these guys give off a very black metal inspired vibe as well, and the epic length of the songs plus the dynamics remind me of Warhorse a bit as well. These guys quite obviously spin a lot of Eyehategod as well, and they’ve learned to use feedback effectively in the same manner. There are some droning moments, and the whole tones and effect of their sound definitely gives off a psychedelic side to their sound.

This is a freakin’ evil, bleak, loud and sludgy first release from a newer band with a lot to offer. Keep a lookout for them, and catch them live if you get the chance. Anyone who is heavily into Ocean, Eyehategod, Buzzoven, as well as some drone fans as well, should eat this right up."

"With three songs comprising a total running time of 41:31, it's clear that Cincinnati doom trio Beneath Oblivion are in no hurry. This is evident from the very opening evil chords accented by nuanced cymbal work which bring the storming opener "Grudges" to the listener's ears with crystalline production, brutally tight execution, and the ugly nihilism inherent in the ultimate love-it-or-hate-it offshoot of heavy metal known as doom. Blackened vocals with a faint whiff of Mike Williams ice this nihilistic cake, as the music on here lumbers along like a fearsome beast. It's slow, but with enough of a pulse to sound deliberate, as opposed to lazy. Also present is that vaguely melancholy sense of melody you'd expect from Forgotten Tomb or Neurosis, tempered by the lumbering hatred of Winter. This is savage stuff, and the quality does not fail over the course of all three songs on this CD, right through the end of my personal favorite tune on here, closer "Landscapes of Desolation" which dips into groovier Eyehategod territory at points.

It's tricky to play music so heavily steeped in repetition without boring the listener, but Beneath Oblivion manage to sustain my interest fully with winding song structures and startling attention to detail, yielding a brutal, pulsing monstrosity of sludge that'll have fans of the slow and low more than satisfied. This is doom metal done right. Brace yourselves."