Dead Elephant – “Thanatology” – [Riot Season]

surferrosa   11/23/2011   A Library, CD

Dirge (noun)-?? a funeral song or tune expressing mourning in commemoration of the dead. This is my one sentence review. Now here is the rest: In the words of the band, this album aims to investigate the concept of loss. This here is some thick, sludgy, DOOM metal with a slow head-banging, funeral march pace. Each of these tracks, like a piece of classical music, has movements. The long tracks (all but #3) move from phase to phase in an almost cinematic manner, creating an effective sense of dread and sorrow. There is a lot of dynamic here, its not all heavy in your face all the time for 42 minutes, these pieces progress. The lulls in these tracks are amazing. You will hear a change in pace, a deceptive, eerie sort of calm which gets more and more tense until it breaks, dropping heavy metal right on your delicate little skull. #1 is straight doom right to your face. #2 starts off with some orchestral funeral music before it descends into hell. #3 is faster, angry thrash. #4 is an epic 16 minute track which kicks off with 8 minutes of nerve wrecking calm, before the heavy comes down, like silence in a horror movie, building intensity, right before some deranged psychopath pops out with a chain saw. This music is thick like coagulated blood. Its drips slowly from your speakers like dense, sticky resin. Play it lots. Instigate some nightmares. -Surfer Rosa