If you’ve been frequenting the site over the past 15-18 months or so, you’ve likely come across a post or two on JOVM mainstay act, Toronto, ON-based proto-metal/doom metal trio CROSSS. And although the band is rather mysterious and little is publicly known about the band’s personnel I can tell you that the band, which originally began as a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based duo, went through several lineup changes before relocating to Toronto and settling on the band’s current configuration. Since relocating to Toronto, the trio have developed a reputation for crating murky, sludgy and intense dirges that are deeply inspired by proto-done, lo-fi indie rock, noise rock and metal, and as a result bear a sonic resemblance to the likes of Black Sabbath, A Place to Bury Strangers and others — but more bottom heavy and doom-laden as you’ll hear on “Interlocutor,” off their last effort, LO which, was released to quite a bit of attention across the blogosphere.
Naturally, as a result of the attention they received, the Canadian trio opened for the likes of Viet Cong, Built to Spill, Thee Oh Sees, King Tuff, Dirty Beaches, Pop1280, Oneida, Built to Spill, METZ, Grimes, Fuzz and Moon Duo among a growing list. But adding to a growing profile, CROSSS announced last month that they had recently signed to Joyful Noise Recordings, who will re-issue the trio’s first two efforts, 2013’s Obsidian Spectre and the aforementioned LO — and they also announced that they’ll be releasing their third full-length effort later on this year. And as soon as it was announced, the trio released “Eye Seance” a doom-laden and lo-fi-leaning dirge that had the trio pairing rumbling down-tuned bass, enormous power chords with howled vocals in a song that sounds like an existential howl into an indifferent and cruel void. “Golden Hearth” will further cement the trio’s reputation for punishingly murky dirges as the band pairs down tuned bass and power chords and thundering drumming with eerily howled and cooed vocals bubbling up from the murk and sludge — and yet there’s a surreal and underlying beauty within the material that subtly nods towards shoegaze.
And with the recent release of the official music video for “Golden Hearth,” the Canadian trio will cement their reputation for pairing dark, horror film-inspired visuals shot in a gorgeously cinematic black and white with their music — in this case, this video hints at Satanic rituals, madness, torture and death. It’ll leave a lingering unsettling sensation after you watch it.
