Desolate and unsettling doom/drone metal. (Verdun - Black Boned Angel)

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Verdun - Black Boned Angel
Date:	14/11/09 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: powerfully atmospheric, impressive production, excellent conclusion to album

Disadvantages: Nothing spectacularly original

For their fourth studio full-length, New Zealand doom/drone band Black Boned Angel have decided to theme their album around the 1916 battle of Verdun, one of the bloodiest engagements of the Great War.

The album begins with deep, slow and echo-laden crashing drums, each beat interspersed with sustained moments of ominous near-silence, this eventually subsiding to give way to crushingly-dense swathes of feedback-swamped guitars that repeat themselves in mesmerising fashion, slowly developing and lingering in the air like thick mist above a desolate and lifeless battlefield.

There isnt a great deal of variation to be found throughout the album, although it remains powerfully atmospheric and engaging as it slowly creeps towards its cathartic conclusion, whereby the mournful guitars are replaced by the distorted sounds of the clamour and confusion of battle: whistling shells; violent explosions; muffled screams and shouts and the relentless bassy thudding of unending machinegun fire.

Whilst not bringing anything stunningly original to the genre, 'Verdun' remains an excellent and atmospheric piece of doom/drone that evokes powerful mental imagery and will be of interest to fans of Khanate, Moss and Sunn0.

Tracklisting-

1. Prayer Sodden Holes - Tears Strike The Mile High Gong - Creeping Barrage 51:55

Total playing time 51:55

Summary: Well worth a look for doom/drone fans