__________.____ ______________________________ .__ _______ ________ \______ \ | \_ _____/\_ _____/\______ \ |__|\ \ / _____/ | | _/ | | __)_ | __)_ | | \| |/ | \/ \ ___ | | \ |___ | \ | \ | ` \ / | \ \_\ \ |______ /_______ \/_______ //_______ //_______ /__\____|__ /\______ / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ artist: Hell title: Submersus year: 2025 genre: Metal type: Album label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories language: English rel. date: 2025-07-11 source: WEB/MP3 quality: CBR 320kbps / 44.1 kHz / Joint Stereo runtime: 00:41:07 size: 98.80 MB rip date: 2025-07-11 source url: http://play.qobuz.com/album/jymt63zjar9ka tracklist: 1. Hevy 9:51 2. Gravis 10:21 3. Factum 4:41 4. Mortem 7:36 5. Bog 8:38 release notes: Hopelessness is their shrine and the sinking gravitas of existential oblivion their distillate as Salem, Oregon-borne sludge/drone-doom metal band HELL find unreal potency on this streamlined fifth full-length album. Veering in slow, ungraceful curve between amplifier garroting noise and charred doom metal riffs æSubmersusæ carries the unholy impurity of drone infused post-millennial sludge metal into a completely economical space, ensuring the profundity available to the sub-genre is nurtured into a fine example of long-standing signature meld. Though the experience doesnÆt endeavor to further betray the boundaries of their original conception it does exemplify their combination into a despairing, brutally chthonic sink beneath the waves. Hell is the long-standing central vision of M.S.W. pre-dating a handful of drone, funeral and stoner doom metal projects thatÆd arisen beyond 2006, though I believe Merkstave was an earlier collaboration. The way IÆd typically viewed this particular body of work was a conduit between the classic 90Æs temperament of sludge/doom metal with the strange new world of the 2000Æs and this is best felt on his first LP (æIæ, 2009). That debut presented a bridge between the buzzing grooves and droning estrangement developed by bands like Khanate, Moss and Corrupted among many (many) others with the riff-built vehemence of say, early Grief in some vague sense. That original ideal was kinda stillborn as quickly as itÆd arrived as harpy-shrieking vocals became blackened rasps, longer more immersive pieces were shorn, and a ruthlessly lo-fi approach was taken on æIIæ (2010) just a year later. This is the most important context for what this new album manifests. Those two first records sum a lot of what æSubmersusæ extrapolates into its expanse as signifiers of Hellæs general characteristics in terms of drones, heavier-than-thou toned riffcraft and dark elemental sound design but not so much the blackened excesses of that second record. In this sense much of the caustic, riff-driven gnashing of æHellæ (2017) is here but voided of excess swinging, blasting, sampled speech, and cinematic sprawl as the artist focuses on absolute efficiency of form alongside fittingly enormous sound design. As IÆd suggested in review of his recent collaboration with Mizmor (æAlluvionæ, 2024) the confidently parsed efficiencies of that record would likely speak directly to a possible impending Hell release and here we are a handful of months later. Heavily weighted up front with the sledgehammered trod of two ~ten minute beasts æSubmersusæ leads with a doom-shaped crowd pleaser and a long-brooding gnarl within its first half. With screaming guitar feedback hailing in and an atmospheric blackened flush-out the bounding shuffle of opener ôHevyö is the key spectacle of the two, an almost classic sludge metal sound cut cold as its slowly crunched-through step first centers around the riff and then waivers, stumbling under the heat of its own despairing movement. The droning abstraction and the rush Ætil mildly blasting section later in the song (around the peak of the chunk ~6:10 minutes in) is satisfyingly tormented, less an erratic movement than it is a groaning struggling toward collapse. While there is more tact applied here than some of Hellæs earliest stuff the noisome, simpler clobber-handed feel is still here throughout. ôGravisö begins much in the same way between a screech of feedback and a downtrodden doom metal riff, lumbering into a kinda Heavydeath level of discord for those first four or so minutes Ætil the droning hits again. This time around burning noise from below is a backdrop for hymnal lament, cleaner vocals which arrive around ~6 minutes into the piece offering their wavering hum while the droning burn beneath the precipice roars and (eventually) screams erupt in the distance. This is probably the most evocative portion of the record for my own taste in terms of combining everything that built Hellæs signature in the past while also setting a horrified, abysmal scene; ôFactumö bridges that thought within its dreary instrumental, a pensive piece written for two guitars which cuts the experience at the middle. The damned and grimed-up tone of the record is sustained even if the fixation of this interludium doesnÆt lead into ôMortemö as seamlessly as some of the bandÆs prior albums mightÆve. Despite this album carrying an uncomplicated, at times formulaic presentation within each of these ~extended pieces there is a certain conviction, or, dire and determined tonality to Hellæs work which is convincing as an album experience. Side B follows a similar patternation as the first half and per my own experience ôMortemö once again tours many of the reasons I became a fan of sludge metal in the early 90Æs: A filthiest as possible downtuned guitar sound, a rasping maniac in the rafters, and the unsettle crush of a big doom metal riff lain bare. There is a frustrated, miserable spectacle to the first ~third of this song in particular which strikes upon the depressive furor of the earliest sludge metal tradition though it comes without the jigging southern twang or punkish hurl of say, Eyehategod and instead drifts beyond a Burning Witch level of witching snarl into ôpost-metalö lament at its mid-to-endpoint. The merger of atmospheric sludge metalÆs over-serious tone, rottenly droning guitar sounds and the ragged edge of classic sludge simplicity is where M.S.W.æs instincts are at their best and while this album kinda feels like it takes some of the ideas explored on the æAlluvionæ collaboration most of those sensibilities were always a part of Hell, here the window into their world is only more clearly stated. Closer ôBogö is probably the most wracking, uncomfortable spout of horror on this album per its three minute drone-starter and the effects scrabbled vocals which retch across the growling mid-paced crack of the groove they (eventually) ride out with. The riff on this song is simple enough but well set as the final wave sent out by the guitars, a tightly crushed-at motion that feels as fatal and harsh as possible. If this is a trip toward the lowest perceptible level of consciousness, a dirge unto the frozen abysm by intent, then the feeling arrived upon at the endpoint of æSubmersusæ directly reflects this; Otherwise the tormented rouse and reflect pattern built within the bigger-picture expression of this record is surprisingly effective per its streamlined shaping. This means most folks will probably find this material to be the most direct and raw feeling action from Hell beyond their first LP. The effect of the full listen is damning, draining yet easily soaked up in transference and (per my own experience) far more memorable than the busied yet seamlessly cut fourth record thatÆd preceded it. Of all of the conditional returns weÆve had via late 2000Æs-borne sludge metal interest this year this is the one thatÆll stick best for my own taste.