Various Artists: Addicted Blues (From The Meadows, The Lakes & The Gorges)

Another in the numerous Eastern European releases that have come my way in recent times that seem to have surfaced originally around 2014 and arrive at SoT with no context as to what makes them worthy of reappraisal some five years later, Addicted Blues is another ‘split’. This time we have a three way, with Ukrainians Torf getting the first four slots, Finland’s Sixpackgods the next three and Russia’s Thy Grave the final pair.

Torf favour a spacey doom, black, psych, stoner approach, with opening cut “Monkey Business/Apes Of Fuck� coming replete with howled, wordless vocals and a thick wash of sound. The same approach is taken on “Sweet Feeling�, but then “Happiness How It Is!!!� hits like a different band altogether; a much more structured approach pierced by clattering snare, although the vocals remain as “woooorghs� and “waaaaaarghs� and are total nonsense. Leaving the swirling attack of “Doomed Youth� to clatter and batter with no real purpose, although there is an excellent use of spoken samples.

Sixpackgods utilise a more perfunctory stoner doom sound, the meandering “Nothing� not far from living up to its name, before the short eponymous track adds pointless clatters and shakes of percussion. Leaving the grinding “Speed Up Sister� to offer the only real hope from this short three track outburst.

Thy Grave bring up the rear and add blackened death expulsions to a confused mix. Splits by their very nature ask you to traverse band and style, but the eight minute “Satanic Dark Hell� offers no bridge or link to what has come before, other than its doomy, leaden pace. Something almost ratified by the much more urgent and convincing “Rotting From Within� and its blackened goth rock style. Oddly it’s the best track on this entire release.

Torf, Sixpackgods and Thy Grave make for odd bedfellows and in truth, none of them come out of this release all that well. It isn’t awful, but then neither is it particularly inspiring.

Track Listing
Torf
1. Monkey Business/ Apes Of Fuck
2. Sweet Feeling
3. Happiness How It Is!!!
4. Doomed Youth
Sixpackgods
5. Nothing
6. Sixpackgods
7. Speed Up Sister
Thy Grave
8. Satanic Dark Hell
9. Rotting From Within

Added: March 18th 2019
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Addicted Blues @ bandcamp
Hits: 717
Language: english

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