Slow Wake - Falling Fathoms

Slow Wake – Falling Fathoms
Release Date: 30th June 2023
Label: Argonauta Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Psych Post Doom, Stoner, Psych.
FFO: Chrome Ghost, Green Druid, Lo-Pan, Mountaineer, Hail the Void.
Review By: Mark Young

It has to be said, when I saw the length of the songs on here, my heart sank. I think maybe I was too warm to sit and listen, or I was just in a funk. Luckily, I gave this a go because it is the shit. There is a type of heavy music that the USA excel at, seemingly effortlessly, and these are one of those bands.

In Waves starts softly and then like waves crashing upon rocks hits with some low-end magic, that has a groove to it and invites you to dance. The tone is absolutely filthy, and they just bring you a stomper that belies its 11-minute length. It’s the kind of song that inspires you to play because it is put together so well and is a cracking start to Falling Fathoms. Controlled Burn slows down into a classic pattern that has been used so many times, but they don’t stay in this zone for long before pressing ‘launch’ and changes the dynamic to a great effect. You can see where the doom and stoner tags within a description of their music, given the repetition of the music, but there is a certain something that elevates it and that lies with Dan Simone and his vocals. They are pitched just right. The tone again is just quality, with the just right amount of heavy to it.

Title track, Falling Fathoms, keeps the good work coming with some exceptional chord movements in there, all underpinned by the vocals. A lot of the doom / stoner I’ve heard makes a mistake of having low end and long songs but miss the most important part of that puzzle by not making them interesting. These may have come as the result of jam sessions, but they have been wise enough to know that the song has to have that groove to it, and these guys have it down pat.

Relief does start in a similar way to others on here, and I suppose that in this genre that would be unavoidable, that the change from quiet to distorted would be used a lot. This sounds churlish of me to pick them up on this, the song itself is a strong effort and is equal in many ways to the songs before it but because of the quality before, it feels less in some way. Possibly if they had just come in with the heavy right from the start, this would be better.

This brings us to the epic closer, Black Stars, which starts on the front foot right from the off, and it’s a belter. The riffs are good, they use that movement that evokes that emotional payoff and combined with the vocals it just really hits. This one takes in psychedelia and hammers it with the doom, giving birth to a wonderful noise that is not just a collection of cool sounding riffs thrown together. Yes, it could have done with a little trimming, but that is a personal thing from me. They keep the energy up all the way through it to close out the album with a future classic.

So, final thoughts are that this is a quality effort, with each song reaching some great heights. Yes, I said that Relief could have been done differently, but that is just me, and obviously my opinion. They have set a high bar for themselves with this release, and I think have done it for the genre too. Excellent stuff!!