Windhand – Soma (2013)

November 10, 2015

Windhand are a doom band from the USA that play the kind of heavy fuzzy as fuck doom with washed out vocals that everyone loves. Whilst some people will read that as Windhand being some sort of second rate Electric Wizard, the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

Opener “Orchard” sums up the overall feel of the album with massive fuzzy riff following massive fuzzy riff while vocalist Dorthia Cottrell’s haunting voice helps lull you into an almost trance-like state (which also makes the album being named after the perfect drug from Brave New World far more apt). There is a nice acoustic break about halfway through (which you would think is jarring but it actually fits really well and I’d like to hear more of it in the future) before it’s back to the fuzz which ends with my personal favourite song, “Cassock”.

The massive (in both sound and length) “Boleskine” follows, and even at 30 minutes it seems to end too soon. Sometimes you really do just want to listen to the same riff over and over again for about 10 minutes because it’s so good. Eventually, it fades and all that is left is the sound of wind and you’re left wondering where the last 75 minutes went.