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