Fortress' 'Unto the Nothing' Marks a Grim New Chapter in the History of Maryland Doom

Photo by Metal Chris Maryland's spot on heavy metal's long list of historically important sites was won way back in the 70s, but the Old Line State still turns out more low-slung, hard-hitting doom riffs than you can lob a Natty Bo at. Case in point: Fortress, a new band from Hagerstown that has come stomping in out of nowhere with one of the year's heaviest slabs of corrupted doom. Taking cues from Winter, Grief, and Worship, the band's debut album Unto the Nothing is a slow, cruel slog through enemy territory. Funeral doom is seldom this compelling, and a lot of the album's success can be credited to the band's willingness to deviate from that norm. Instead of playing by genre rules, Fortress experiments with dynamics and melody, welding its funereal passages to moments of fuzzed-out stoner doom beneath a cloud of distortion.

Maryland doom just got a whole lot darker. Stream the just-released Unto the Nothing in full (including the most punishing Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cover ever), and purchase the album on digipack CD, on vinyl (in one of three available colors), or digitally from Unholy Anarchy Records.

Kim Kelly is probably talking about doom on Twitter.