Witching Chronicles: Exploring The SONS OF GHIDORAH’s Hallowmas

I gave Hallowmas a few spins, and I’m still wrestling with it. I can tell you that itā€™s a heavy album, thatā€™s for sure. The guitars are thickā€”like thickā€”and I kind of dig that. Itā€™s not your standard doom drone either. Thereā€™s an energy in there, something that moves more than I expected from something so… well, doom. Itā€™s not always dragging at a glacial pace, and thatā€™s a plus. But youā€™re still getting all the sludge you want.

The bass is like itā€™s been designed to rumble through your body instead of just your ears. Is it too much? Maybe. Iā€™m not sure. Sometimes I thought it was overtaking everything, swallowing up the rest of the sound. But then there were moments where it felt right, like it was grounding everything, making it feel massive. A little too massive at times, but still… I get it. I get what they’re going for.

Markā€™s vocals definitely caught me off guard. They’re not polished – thereā€™s this gritty, almost desperate energy to them that makes it feel like heā€™s really putting something into it, you know? Like, heā€™s not trying to impress anyone with range or technique, but heā€™s making every word count. Itā€™s raw, and in the context of everything else happening on this album, it works. I canā€™t say I loved every moment of it, but I appreciated the honesty of it.

Thereā€™s something else I wasnā€™t expecting, though – this album has a vibe. Not all doom albums pull this off, but thereā€™s this atmosphere floating around between the heavy moments. Some parts, you think itā€™s just going to bulldoze you into the ground, but then thereā€™s a weird, spacey section that makes you pause. Theyā€™re not reinventing the wheel here, but thereā€™s a little mystery tucked into the way these songs unfold. Itā€™s subtle but effective.

Still, itā€™s not all roses. There are some points where I thought the bass was just too damn loud. Seriously, I almost couldnā€™t hear the other instruments over it. I wish they wouldā€™ve let the guitars take a little more space to breathe. And if Iā€™m being totally honest, it doesnā€™t do anything new. If youā€™ve heard stoner or doom before, youā€™re not going to get anything groundbreaking here. But thatā€™s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes you just want to hear a band doing what they do well, and thatā€™s what Sons of Ghidorah does. Itā€™s solid enough.

I guess Iā€™m somewhere in between liking it a lot and feeling like itā€™s just kind of there. Itā€™s good. Itā€™s definitely good, but not revolutionary. But Iā€™ll throw it on again in a few days, and that says something, right?

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Released by Argonauta Records on November 29th, 2024
Music source for review ā€“ Grand Sounds PR

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