FUOCO FATUO
Obsidian Katabasis
PROFOUND LORE
Cosmic doom crew pitch your guts into a wormhole
These Italian funeral psychdoom bruisers mastered crushing heaviosity with their earliest material, and although it is gradually being refined into more distinctive and versatile forms, the Thor’s Hammering weight of this gargantuan third album will still wrench your guts. The sound is extraordinary. You’re never quite sure what’s what; crackling waves of amp noise judder and undulate hypnotically, until suddenly the guitars coalesce into a razor-sharp cosmic doom riff. At one point you’re not sure if they’re playing a sample of a crashing sea in a thunderstorm, or if that’s just what the band have managed to get their instruments to sound like. It’s more rounded than 2017’s excellent Backwater, atmospherically and dynamically varied, and quieter moments maintain a haunting intensity.