dOwnhill- Self Titled (2015)

dOwnhill- Self Titled (2015)

By: Ghost Writer

It seems now that Belarus is about to become an ally of the West, or a bridge between the West and Eurasia, it seems that finally, in order to get close to Russia, the European Union and the USA are getting close to Belarus, unfortunately unnoticing Belarus human right issue, as a still remaining authoritarian regime form the times when the USSR was still active, Lukashenko, it´s leader, still holds power over a secret police, still named KGB, used to repress Belarusian dissidents who oppose his regime, one where freedom is restrained and democracy exists only as a farce.

Anyway, art and music manages to exist even in the hardest places, just like Russian hero Egor Letov managed to create brutal punk rock in the coldest confines of the USSR, dOwnhill is a sludge band whose music resounds in the darkest corners of Minsk, the Belarusian capital, in oppressive fashion, dOwnhill plays really oppressive painful music but with beauty lying somewhere within, as the sludgy nature of the quintet music sounds just like a rainbow covered in mud and dirt, and that is precisely the magic in this self-titled recording issued last year, a penchant for ultra-heavy distorted bass and hyper dark atmospherics are the principal characteristics at the beginning of A Rake´s Progress, the opening track, sporting a heavy Alan Dubin like vocals (Dubin was the vocalist of OLD and Khanate) that immediately produce goosebumps on the skin, the pace is slow and the sound is demonic, as the band put us through this demonic dark waltz.

Featuring a Hellhammer like passion for horrid feedback, The Harpy´s Nest is a doom like song featuring small and subtle doses of melody and insect like ringing guitars, the band here shows a really ugly side with beyond the grave vocals and a unique sound that no doom or extreme metal band can easily recreate, upping the intensity and evolving into a free form more chaotic type of song, while on Nvnest, texture becomes an important feature, with a clicking bass giving space for a gothic tune full of pain and despair, a really strong mourning tune with piercing vocals and a really amazing schizophrenic nature.

Again impressive elements of sludge and really dissonant motifs appear on the brutal One Way Trip, the band here reminding me a lot of NOLA great Crowbar, with mind altering guitars and precise drumming, with the band closing the record with the eerie Burial at The Sea, featuring ringing guitars that could bring to mind post rock at moments, the drum arrangements are perfect at creating suffocating tension and taking us into uncharted territories for a sludge metal act, but as we have mentioned dOwnhill are definitely something else, the result of an oppressive environments again propitiating great music to occur in a tough place, getting all these powerful elements into a Molotov cocktail just about to explode, excellent music from “the last European dictatorship”!