Category: doom metal

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Saltmother Shares Dreamy, Hopeful “Masske”

Amanda Appel is a Danish singer/songwriter, best known for being a member of the Danish Music Award-nominated vocal outfit ilinx. Since their formation back in 2020, iinx has been at the forefront of the Danish experimental scene, playing sets at Roskilde Festival, midsummer bonfire ceremonies, fashion shows during Copenhagen Fashion Week and niche classical music festivals across the country.

Appel is also the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project Saltmother. Appel’s Saltmother debut, 2022’s Heavy in Baby Blue EP was an adventurous batch of electronic music with songs that thematically touched on being young and in love, living in rental apartments and taking hormonal contraception.

The Danish artist’s forthcoming Saltmother debut album reportedly marks a shift towards a much darker, more organic sound, anchored around intimacy and filled with captivating and deeply human imperfections.

The album’s first single “Maaske” is a weird yet gorgeous song that features a seamless blend of doom metal, stoner rock, folk and choral music, complete with some stunning harmonies. The song is anchored around a universal sentiment: that the darkness of our moment — or of any moment, really — isn’t forever; that we can overcome darkness by the comfort of being and singing together; and that brighter days are just ahead.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Wright Valley Trio Share Expansive and Bruising “Leben ist Schmerz”

Deriving their name from one of the most barren and foreboding locations on Earth, a huge, dry valley in Antartica, the Wiesbaden, Germany-based doom metal outfit The Wright Valley Trio — Dominque Fricker (vocals, guitar), Robert Krause (bass, synths)_ and Matthias Rodig (drums) — was founded back in 2013, but can actually trace their origins to working together in different projects over the years.

In their decade-plus history, the trio have released two albums, 2023’s Bitter Alter, a collaborative effort with Blackstaff; and 2021’s Der Wag, as well as three EPs 2017’s Shackleton, 2018’s Submarine Funeral and 2022’s Metal Doom. And through these releases, the German doom trio have developed a sound that seamlessly meshes elements of doom, sludge and post-black metal, anchored around extremely long songs that range from cultivated boredom to heavy riffs and massive walls of sound.

The German trio’s recently released album Leben ist Schmerz is a two-song album that the band explains tells the story of a life with bipolar disorder, exploring the extremes of that condition — and the struggles it brings. Clocking in at a little under 27.30, the album’s first single, album title track “Leben ist Schmerz” is an expansive, slow-burning and downright bruising bit of sludgy doom that captures the album’s central concept with a seemingly lived-in accuracy.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Albums of the Year 2025

JOVM turns 16 this year. And for first handful of years, my Best of List was an annual tradition until about 2014 or so. Between 2014 and 2020, it became sporadic and then it stopped. I haven’t done one of these in several years. There was a part of me that wondered if it really mattered much. And then life happened. 

So here we are in 2026. And with the year starting in earnest, let’s check out my best of 2025. 

  1. Big Fish Fyra liter stoft
  2. Tan Cologne Unknown Beyond
  3. Moondaddy Dove Tapes
  4. Sessa Pequena Vertigem de Amor
  5. Preservation Brass & Preservation Hall Jazz Band For Fat Man
  6. Silk Daisys S/T
  7. The Circling Sun Orbits
  8. Gabriel da Rosa Cacofonia
  9. Yoo Doo Right, Population II & Nolan Potter Yoo II avec Nolan Potter
  10. bat zoo The Upward Bird EP
  11. Public Circuit Modern Church
  12. L’Eclair Cloud Drifter
  13. Gloin All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)
  14. CIVIC Chrome Dipped
  15. Population II Maintenant Jamais
  16. White Birches A New Reign
  17. Anish Kumar and Hagop Tchaparian Kino EP
  18. Friendship Commanders BEAR 
  19. The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation
  20. SHOLTO The Sirens
  21. S.C.A.B. Somebody In New York Loves You!
  22. Pierpont & Hegeleson Of Time
  23. RORO and snapir Colors Left
  24. St. Panther Strange World 
  25. Nation of Language Dance Called Memory
  26. Quad90 S/T
  27. Slumbering Sun Starmony
  28. Tunde Adebimpe Thee Black Boltz 
  29. Quad90 S/T
  30. Die Spitz Something To Consume
  31. debdepan LOVERS & OTHERS EP

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Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Faetooth Shares Forceful and Stormy “Hole”

Led by Jenna Garcia (vocals, bass), Los Angeles-based outfit Faetooth specializes in a sound that they’ve dubbed “fairy-doom:” a unique and eclectic amalgamation of doom metal paired with vocals that alternate between spellbinding melodies to guttural shrieks and howls. 

Last month, the Los Angeles-based outfit announced their highly-anticipated sophomore album Labyrinthine will be slated for a September 5 release digitally through AWAL and on vinyl and CD by The Flenser. Labyrinthine will reportedly see the band further establishing their “fairy-doom” sound while embracing a newly softened, more intimate tone, anchored around emotional rawness.

Throughout the album, the material touches upon themes of loss, self-pity, personal relationships and more. The inmate balance doesn’t dilute their intensity; rather it reframes it, offering listeners a haunting yet delicate atmosphere, layered with entrancing textures that build up to explosive catharsis. The result is an album that’s a hauntingly visceral and disturbing vision, anchored by deep introspection. 

Labyrinthine will feature the previously released, “Death of Day” which to my ears channeled the likes of Tool and JOVM mainstays Slumbering Sun, and “White Noise,” a bruising ripper rooted in a palpable and unsettling mix of anguish, despair, loathing and fury that feels both lived in and deeply familiar. 

“Hole,” the album’s latest single is a slow-burning and meditative doom metal dirge that slowly builds up into a bruising and stormy intensity, fueled by a lived in urgency and desperation to get away from a seemingly fucked up past and fucked up cycles of dysfunction, abuse, etc. And much like the previously released singles, “Hole” does so with an innately empathetic sensibility that says to the listener “I’ve been there. You aren’t alone.”

 

“’Hole’ is a meditation on the choice of confronting the past, or burying it,” the band’s Jenna Garcia explains. “Sobering, waking, realizations of cycles find themselves bared, culminating in an invocation-like verse that declares severance to all ties to a creeping past.”

Directed by Joe Mischo, the cinematically shot visual for “Hole” follows a a woman frantically running through a wooded countryside that includes madness, regret, possession and witches.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: GHXST Shares Brooding “Cosmic”

Initially formed in Brooklyn back in 2010 and currently based in Los Angeles, indie duo GHXST — Shelley X and Chris Wild — specialize in a sound that draws from The Velvet Underground, Black Sabbath, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Mazzy Star, 90s grunge, and their never ending travels to nowhere.

The duo’s latest single “Cosmic” is slow-burning, slithering and brooding doom metal-like dirge reminiscent of the RidingEasy Records roster and Faetooth with a subtly stoner rock/desert rock vibe. At its core, the song channels the heat and the hauntingly uneasy stillness of the desert.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Faetooth Returns with Bruising “White Noise”

Led by Jenna Garcia (vocals, bass), Los Angeles-based outfit Faetooth specializes in a sound that they’ve dubbed “fairy-doom:” a unique and eclectic amalgamation of doom metal paired with vocals that alternate between spellbinding melodies to guttural shrieks and howls. 

Right as last week closed out, the Los Angeles-based outfit announced that their highly-anticipated sophomore album Labyrinthine will be slated for a September 5 release digitally through AWAL and on vinyl and CD by Flenser. The sophomore album will reportedly see the band further establishing their “fairy-doom” sound while embracing a newly softened, more intimate tone, anchored around emotional rawness. Throughout the album, the material touches upon themes of loss, self-pity, personal relationships and more. The inmate balance doesn’t dilute their intensity; rather it reframes it, offering listeners a haunting yet delicate atmosphere, layered with entrancing textures that build up to explosive catharsis. The result is an album that’s a hauntingly visceral and disturbing vision, anchored by deep introspection.

Labyrinthine will feature the previously released, “Death of Day,” a slow-burning and forceful dirge anchored a classic grunge song structure that features swirling shoegazer-like guitar textures, thunderous drumming, enormous power chords and eerie, banshee-like wailing paired with Garcia’s sonorous croon.

While channeling the likes of Tool, JOVM mainstays Slumbering Sun and others, “Death of Day” the song as the band’s Jenna Garcia explains “came to be after reading into the deity, Lilith. I was initially transfixed to the myth of her spawning from the ‘dregs,’ or lowest realm of evil. I perceived that as her coming from the dirt, the earth, and having to confront a life where her very existence is viewed as malevolence, as ugliness. She is cast out into isolation from the moment she came into being. I began to view that as a strong parallel to the existence of queer and trans people in a world that is constantly trying to exterminate and diminish them.”

Faetooth’s frontperson adds that the song’s lyrics “are written as a bit of ode to the Lilith archetype, and simultaneously celebrating and lamenting her forced seclusion from society. The first verse is about her coming into being, how she can only come out at night, and then the second verse is like, yeah, you all hate me, I’m gonna bring all my friends that you also deem as a scourge on society, f*** you.”

The album’s latest single “White Noise” is a bruising ripper, rooted in a palpable and unsettling mix of anguish, despair, loathing and fury that feels both lived in and deeply familiar. The band explains that the song emerged from a diary entry and is a relentless and intense reflection on inner turmoil. We’re often drawn to the familiar, when we don’t quite know why and even when we don’t immediately realize that we’re reaching out for it. And as a result, the song is an emotional upheaval, carrying the sort of harsh and uneasy truths that weigh heavily on one’s heart and soul.

The band’s guitarist Ari May says, “Performing the song always takes me back to a specific place, even if just for a moment.”
 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Slumbering Sun Returns with Swooning “Together Forever”

Formed back in 2022, Austin-based outfit AND JOVM mainstays  Slumbering Sun — Monte Luna‘s James Clarke (vocals), Destroyer of Light‘s Keegan Kjeldsen (guitar) and Kelly “Penny” Turner, Temptress‘ Kelsey Wilson, and Monte Luna’s and Scorpion Child’s Garth Condit (bass) — is a Texas underground metal scene All-Star outfit that specializes in “music for crazy romantics,” as they’ve dubbed it, a melodic doom metal that incorporates elements of Celtic folk, grunge, prog rock and shoegaze. 

The Austin-based quintet’s full-length debut, 2023’s The Ever-Living Fire debuted at #20 on the Doom Charts. The band played their first show at SXSW’s Stoner Jam, then embarked on a series of regional tours before capping off the year with a set at Ripple Fest.

The band spent the bulk of last year, writing and recording their highly-anticipated sophomore effort, Starmony, which saw its official DSP and limited vinyl release earlier this month.

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • “Midsommar Night’s Dream,” a track that begins with a gorgeous, pensive piano and string driven introduction, before quickly morphing into swooningly heartfelt and nostalgia-fueled dirge anchored around the sort of fuzzy power chords that would bring smiles to the faces of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Neil Young, all while being arguably the most cinematic song they’ve released to date. 

  • “The Tower” a track that begins with a broodingly atmospheric introduction that quickly morphs into slow-burning, power chord-driven dirge with dexterous guitar solos. “The Tower” continues a run of material that’s soulful and cinematic while showcasing the band’s unerring knack for crafting a sound that recalls The Sword, Soundgarden and others. 

“Together Forever,” Starmony‘s latest single is a slow-burning ballad that sees the band pairing the swooning Romanticism of goth with the churning and fuzzy power chord-driven dirges of doom metal. The new single continues a run of material that’s perfectly suited for folks who love to hear anthemic songs with enormous power chords and rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses with beers raised in the air — but while also feeling something.

The accompanying video features footage shot over the past two years of touring across Texas and the rest of the Midwest, including the late night food food stops, the endless trees and white lines of the road, the small shows, and the pals you meet across the scene — with an uncanny precision.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Glasgow’s Cwfn Shares Stormy and Brooding “Bodies”

Over the course of the past 18 months Glasgow-based outfit Cwfn (pronounced coven) — Agnes Alder (vocals, rhythm guitar), Guy DeNuit (backing vocals, lead guitar), Rös Ranquinn (drums) and Mary Thomas Baker (bass) — have quickly built up a reputation as one of the region’s hottest, emerging doom bands. Their debut single, last October’s “Reliks” won over fans and critics, with the song landing on Kerrang‘s release of the week playlist.

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the Scottish quartet’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, the Kevin Hare and band co-produced Sorrows is slated for a May 30, 2025 release. Recorded at Deep Storm Productions, Sorrows reportedly lives in the space around doom, where the weight of the materials riffs are matched by the weight in your chest — and with material where the lyrics and songwriting as equally as important as the music. The band intend to write material that’s big on riffs but even bigger on feeling; to create songs that you carry with you throughout your life. The album sees Cwfn’s Alder bearing her (proverbial) claws one minute, whispering and pleading the next while she and her bandmates craft a sound that’s like a brewing storm front.

“We never set out to write an album. We were just four friends making music we wanted to hear. But then Sorrows emerged, and when it did, it pulled us into its orbit. We couldn’t ignore it,” Cwfn’s Agnes Alder says.  “When we stopped trying to fit into any one space, what came out was this beautiful mix of dark and light. Something visceral and cathartic.”

The album will also feature long-anticipated reworkings of “Embers” and “Bodies,” their two self-recorded demos that are also fan favorites — and helped catapult them into the national and international scenes.

Sorrows latest single “Bodies” is a brewing and uneasy storm of a track, that features Alder’s guttural, almost crypt keeper-like delivery floating around swirling, churning and sludgy power chord-driven riffage, thunderous drumming and the band’s knack for enormous hooks. And at its core, the song expresses a deep-seated, seething rage that has built up to an all-consuming conflagration.

“Bodies was one of the first songs I’d written for Cwfen. I’d gone through a period of significant change in my life and had burned out to the point of caring a lot less about things that had previously been important to me when I was younger,” the band’s Alder explains. “As I was writing, I’d imagined this sort of vast, feminine cosmic horror. Sort of the opposite of what women are supposed to be. And I had this thought: what if, instead of being told to stay small and keep producing, a woman took up the biggest space possible and just… consumed? Almost a black-hole-sized matriarch hoovering up everything until there was nothing left. It was fun to think about this sort of monstrous feminine presence that can’t be stopped. So the song was sort of an exploration of those feelings, a catharsis of sorts. And permission to be terrifying.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Faetooth Shares a Slow-Burning and Grungy Ripper

Led by Jenna Garcia (vocals, bass), Los Angeles-based outfit Faetooth specializes in a sound that they’ve dubbed “fairy-doom:” a unique and eclectic amalgamation of doom metal paired with vocals that alternate between spellbinding melodies to guttural shrieks and howls.

The Los Angeles-based outfit’s latest single “Death of Day” is a slow-burning and forceful dirge anchored around a classic grunge structure – quiet verses featuring swirling shoegazer guitar textures and thunderous drumming and loud choruses and hooks featuring enormous power chords and banshee-like wailing serving as a brooding bed for Garcia’s sonorous croon. While channeling the likes of Tool, JOVM mainstays Slumbering Sun and others, “Death of Day” the song as the band’s Jenna Garcia explains “came to be after reading into the deity, Lilith. I was initially transfixed to the myth of her spawning from the ‘dregs,’ or lowest realm of evil. I perceived that as her coming from the dirt, the earth, and having to confront a life where her very existence is viewed as malevolence, as ugliness. She is cast out into isolation from the moment she came into being. I began to view that as a strong parallel to the existence of queer and trans people in a world that is constantly trying to exterminate and diminish them.”

Faetooth’s frontperson adds that the song’s lyrics “are written as a bit of ode to the Lilith archetype, and simultaneously celebrating and lamenting her forced seclusion from society. The first verse is about her coming into being, how she can only come out at night, and then the second verse is like, yeah, you all hate me, I’m gonna bring all my friends that you also deem as a scourge on society, f*** you.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Slumbering Sun Shares Cinematic “Midsommar Night’s Dream”

Formed back in 2022, Austin-based outfit Slumbering Sun — Monte Luna‘s James Clarke (vocals), Destroyer of Light‘s Keegan Kjeldsen (guitar) and Kelly “Penny” Turner, Temptress‘ Kelsey Wilson, and Monte Luna’s and Scorpion Child’s Garth Condit (bass) — is a Texas underground metal scene All-Star outfit that specializes in “music for crazy romantics,” as they’ve dubbed it, a melodic doom metal that incorporates elements of Celtic folk, grunge, prog rock and shoegaze.

The Austin-based quintet’s full-length debut, 2023’s The Ever-Living Fire debuted at #20 on the Doom Charts. The band played their first show at SXSW’s Stoner Jam, then embarked on a series of regional tours before capping off the year with a set at Ripple Fest.

The band spent the bulk of last year, writing and recording their highly-anticipated sophomore effort, Starmony, which is slated for a limited-edition vinyl and digital release on May 6, 2025. In between writing and recording sessions, they toured the Midwest and released last year’s “Out of the Blue & Into the Void,” a song that seemingly mashes up classic tracks by Neil Young and Black Sabbath.

Slumbering Sun’s latest single “Midsommar Night’s Dream” begins with a gorgeous and pensive piano and string-driven introduction, before morphing into a swooningly heartfelt and nostalgia-fueled dirge anchored around the sort of fuzzy power chords that would bring a smile to the faces of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Neil Young, all while being arguably the most cinematic song they’ve released to date.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Guatemala’s Cavidades Shares Brooding Dirge “Me Esperas en La Nada”

Nelson Morán is a Guatemala-based multi-instrumentalist and producer, who has spent the past 15 years in the local music scene, including stints with Xb’alanke and Adonis Muerto.

Morán’s solo project Cavidades sees the Guatemalan multi-instrumentalist and producer overseeing all production and composition, which gives the material a deeply personal, idiosyncratic touch. The project sees Morán drawing from doom metal but while venturing into industrial, psychedelia and post-metal. For the Guatemalan artist, this unique fusion of genre and styles helps to create an immersive and boundary-pushing sound.

The project’s full-length debut will feature guest spots from Marleny Ruano (drums) and Carlos Queme (vocals), which add a collaborative touch to a deeply personal batch of material.

Morán’s Cavidades debut single “Me Esperas En La Nada” is a slow-burning and forceful dirge, featuring eerily atmospheric synths, down-tuned power chords paired with guttural howls and a simple yet thunderous backbeat. Sonically, bringing Melvins and BORIS among others, the song according to Morán thematically explores the dichotomy of existence, capturing the beauty and pain of being alive.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Initially started as a solo electronic/indie sleaze project out of an Atlanta dorm room, Gothlantastan grew into an indiecore/alt rock band featuring brothers Ethan and Colin Schnapp, before expanding into a quintet with the additions of Spencer Mjehovich (baas) and Gianni Summa (guitar) and Aiden Prince (guitar).

The Atlanta-based outfit’s latest single “Life’s Misery’s Pain” is a pummeling, eardrum shattering, abrasive and forceful ripper featuring scorching riffage, thunderous drumming and howled vocals paired with mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses. While sounding as though it could have been released through RidingEasy Records, “Life’s Misery’s Pain,” is a howl into an indifferent and unceasing void, with the band explaining that the song is about helplessness and aging.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Autumns Eyes Shares Pummeling “Faith In Cycles”

New England-based multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Daniel Mitchell is the creative mastermind behind Autumns Eyes, a goth metal solo project inspired by a range of dark and goth-like sources ranging from Tim Burton to Type O Negative. Since starting the project back in 1999, Mitchell has released 12 albums of Halloween-themed and inspired material that reminds those who love the darkness that it can be fun to live in the shadows.

Mitchell’s latest single, the ear drum shattering, early Metallica-meets Bauhaus-like, mosh pit friendly “Faith in Cycles” is built around pummeling, Headbanger’s Ball-like riffage, thundering drumming, Mitchell alternating between crooned-vocals for the verses and howling for the choruses and a scorching guitar solo. Play loud — and open up that pit!

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rat Mass Teams Up with Sami Michelsen on Feral “Holding Me Down”

Rat Mass — Ryan Taylor and Mitchell Sosebee — is a fairly mysterious, and emerging American metal duo, who frequently improvise to create heavy music with elements of ambient music and noise. The duo released their latest album Time Pulls The Trigger earlier this month, and the album’s first single, the PJ Harvey-meets-Chelsea Wolfe-meets Soundgarden-like “Holding Me Down” which features Sami Michelsen’s bluesy crooning and wailing over a menacing and scorching riffs, thunderous drumming within an arrangement that rapidly shifts time signatures and tempos.

The result is a song that feels and sounds feral, unpredictable, difficult to pigeonhole and wildly adventurous.

The accompanying video evokes — and seems inspired by our contemporary and seemingly unending hellscape of despair, protest, inequity, bloodshed and fire.