LOATHFINDER: “THE GREAT TIRED ONES”

 

(Andy Synn reviews the debut EP by the Polish band Loathfinder, released near the end of April by Godz Ov War Productions.)

Never underestimate the power of some eye-catching artwork… I mean, just look at that cover art… the rotten, roughly-sketched lines, the gritty, granular colour-scheme, the subtle suggestion of oozing, necrotic motion… how can you not want to find out more when confronted with an image like that?

 

 

As it turns out, the band in question, who go by the name of Loathfinder, are a hideously heavy and gloriously grim Blackened Death/Doom band from Poland, and their debut EP, The Great Tired Ones, offers up four tracks of bone-grinding riffs, putrid vocals, and suppurating, suffocating grooves, which seem purposefully designed to ruin your day.

Yet as disgustingly dirty (love that guitar tone) and remorselessly gloomy as the band are, there’s a real method to their madness, above and beyond the compulsion to simply wallow in sonic filth.

Opener “Genetic Gloom”, for example, conceals an undercurrent of eerie melody and some nicely gnarly hooks beneath its layers of muck and grime, seething and surging, swelling and bursting, in utterly sickening – yet surprisingly infectious – style, while its follow-up, “Feast On My Entrails”, is pure malevolence personified in almost seven minutes of ominous, oppressive atmosphere and nauseating dread.

After this, the bowel-loosening bass and festering, feverish guitar sound that underpins “Scents of Regression” helps to conjure one truly menacing and murky miasma of auditory horror, before the gruesome title-track delivers the final coup de grace with a nine-minute monstrosity of gargantuan, lurching riffs and foul, malignant melodies that’s as cruelly compelling as it is harrowingly heavy.

All in all this is one hell of a nasty piece of work, and one which thoroughly deserves your time and attention.

The stunning cover artwork was created by Robert A. von Ritter (Outre, Diabolizer, Witchmaster, etc.).

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/loathfinder-the-great-tired-ones

https://loathfinder.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Loathfinder/