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Music

Stream the Crushing Doom of Drowning Horse's 'Sheltering Sky'

The Perth doom merchants double LP is an interesting amalgam of drone, metal and sludge. It’s all black.

Drowning Horse’s Sheltering Sky could be one of the heaviest records of 2015. There’s a weight to the Perth outfit’s crushing doom that feels like a glacial shift. The movement of tectonic plates. During the 17-minute “Cursed” you can feel the sea level rising and by the closing track “Sacrifice” your socks will be wet.

The double LP, released on Sydney label Art As Catharsis, is an interesting amalgam of drone, metal and sludge. It’s all black.

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Though the band has been likened to heavy crush legends Earth and Neurosis they bring enough of their own style to stand out from a crowded heavy doom landscape.

Stream the album below and read a quick chat we had with guitarist Brendan McGrath.

Noisey: Too often music like yours is described as punishing, unflinching and brutal. Heavy doom needs more adjectives. How would you describe it?
Brendan McGrath: That’s a bit of a tough one. To people unfamiliar with the genre, I usually describe our music as ‘slowed down Black Sabbath’, which isn’t really that accurate. If I had to use adjectives though I would probably go with something like ‘heavy and enveloping’.

Neurosis or Earth? Or just straight up Corrupted?
I think Neurosis have had the biggest influence on us of any band, although I’m not sure if you can hear it directly in our music. Playing with them last year was an absolute highpoint for us as a band.

The album highlight “Cursed” runs at 17-minutes. Has it always been this long? What’s it like to play it live?
We wrote these songs a couple of years ago so it is hard to remember, but I think it has always been that long. We haven’t played it live for about 18 months but we’re hoping it’ll make it into our set for our upcoming shows.

Where was the spectacular album photo taken?
It’s a photo of Mt Etna in Sicily and was taken by a friend of ours. We felt it was the perfect image to use for what we were trying to achieve aesthetically with this record.

‘Sheltering Sky’ is available Oct 22 through Art As Catharsis.

Drowning Horse Sheltering Sky tour:
Oct 30 –Perth at The Rosemount with Space Bong, Craig McElhinney and Alzabo
Oct 31 – Fremantle at Mojos with Space Bong, Foxes and Self Harm
Nov 5 – Brisbane at Crowbar with Carnal Urge, Ripped Off, Frown and Idylls
Nov 6 – Melbourne at The Curtin with Gentlemen, Mutton, Whitehorse and Scab Eater
Nov 7 – Melbourne at The Tote with Spacebong, Extinct Exist, Contaminated and Tombsealer
Nov 8 - Sydney at Newtown Social with We Lost The Sea, Thorax and Jxckxlz

This article originally appeared on Noisey Australia.