I have a method to write my reviews. It is really simple and I like a lot to stick to it because it gives me the security to go on. In this method there are some simple rules and one of them is always listening to an album more than once. My guess is that by it I can give the band all the chances it deserves to have its music commented here. We receive bands from all over this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet and most of them are not known by the big audiences. This gives me more responsability. I was in their place once hoping to someone write a (nice) review about my band. Listening to the album more than once also gives me the opportunity to pay attention on the details – remember, the devil is in the details. The details are so important in music because they make it possible to make a band stand out from the crowd. It’s exactly with happened here with Slomatics with “Strontium Fields,” band with an almost twenty year career.
As Slomatics stated in the press release “Strontium Fields” is based on a science-fiction backdrop which casts a duly futuristic theme. A feature that makes them a bit different from their peers. By first track “Wooden Satellites” the view I had about the album was that it was a solid standard Doom Metal with all the pros and cons. Thick low-tuned guitar riffs with a ghostly vocal with a pounding slow drumming. It’s when “I, Neanderthal” comes that everything changes head over heels because I noticed Marty’s voice was very near The Cult’s Ian Astbury. Here was the detail I was looking for to let me write this review. His voice changed everything I was thinking about “Strontium Fields.” I’ve got to say that everything made sense from them on. There is some tribal influence in the drumming of “Wooden Satellites” and other tracks mixed with a ghostly mood which can be referred to The Cult to some extent. The contrast of the mood created in the beginning of “Time Capture” with Marty’s voice was surprising. Bottomline, The track may be the point where Candlemass meet The Cult.
This is an album to delivers a little more than the expected. A Doom Metal with some spice.
Slomatics “Strontium Fields” will be released on September 08th via Black Bow Records.
Track Listing:
- Wooden Satellites
- I, Neanderthal
- Time Capture
- Like A Kind of Minotaur
- Voidians
- Zodiac Arts Lab
- ARCS
- With Dark Futures
Watch “I, Neanderthal” official lyric video here:
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