I gave Hallowmas a few spins, and I’m still wrestling with it. I can tell you that it’s a heavy album, that’s for sure. The guitars are thick—like thick—and I kind of dig that. It’s not your standard doom drone either. There’s an energy in there, something that moves more than I expected from something so… well, doom. It’s not always dragging at a glacial pace, and that’s a plus. But you’re still getting all the sludge you want.
The bass is like it’s been designed to rumble through your body instead of just your ears. Is it too much? Maybe. I’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.
Mark’s vocals definitely caught me off guard. They’re not polished – there’s this gritty, almost desperate energy to them that makes it feel like he’s really putting something into it, you know? Like, he’s not trying to impress anyone with range or technique, but he’s making every word count. It’s raw, and in the context of everything else happening on this album, it works. I can’t say I loved every moment of it, but I appreciated the honesty of it.
There’s something else I wasn’t expecting, though – this album has a vibe. Not all doom albums pull this off, but there’s this atmosphere floating around between the heavy moments. Some parts, you think it’s just going to bulldoze you into the ground, but then there’s a weird, spacey section that makes you pause. They’re not reinventing the wheel here, but there’s a little mystery tucked into the way these songs unfold. It’s subtle but effective.
Still, it’s not all roses. There are some points where I thought the bass was just too damn loud. Seriously, I almost couldn’t hear the other instruments over it. I wish they would’ve let the guitars take a little more space to breathe. And if I’m being totally honest, it doesn’t do anything new. If you’ve heard stoner or doom before, you’re not going to get anything groundbreaking here. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes you just want to hear a band doing what they do well, and that’s what Sons of Ghidorah does. It’s solid enough.
I guess I’m somewhere in between liking it a lot and feeling like it’s just kind of there. It’s good. It’s definitely good, but not revolutionary. But I’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 – Grand Sounds PR
