GRIMPEN MIRE - A Plague Upon Your Houses CD (ecopak)

After taking bloody ages to decide on how to do the packaging properly finally this record is ready to drop! Grimpen Mire are one of the finest heavy bands in the UK right now and came on to my radar several years ago when I saw them playing the 1 in 12 in Bradford. This is "sludge" in that it's properly heavy and has tons of dissonance and screeching feedback, but these guys are from the "Sabbath home" of Birmingham and aim to hit you with the same bleak, grey life view that was so brilliantly captured on that opening toll of the first Sabbath record. There's not a stoner riff, a groovy chorus or an "ooh yeah" anywhere to be heard here (thank fuck!), this is entirely dense, negative doom metal. Taking the untouchable template of Winter, Hellhammer and Frost, slowing things down a bit (though there are a few pacy moments here) and turning it up past 11 with a real indutrial town mentality is what these guys are all about. It seems the downer doom bubble has popped and everyone's taking on these current hard times by llstening to party riff bands, but I get the distinct impression Grimpen Mire don't really give too much of a fuck about that. Cast thyself down in prostration before the fulsome horror of...the Grimpen Mire!

500 copies on CD, 4 page booklet inside a thick PVC oversleeve with text by Gaendaal of Wraiths.