Windhand – Windhand (Forcefield Records)
The year’s definitely still young, but it seems like 2012 has already proven itself a great time for more traditionally-minded doom metal bands to kick out some really killer material. Between Pallbearer, Pilgrim, and the first Saint Vitus album in a decade and a half, the number of bands who can successfully channel Sabbath, Pentagram, and Pagan Altar, while still retaining a distinct, non-derivative sound, has remained remarkably high. Richmond’s Windhand, who recently released their debut full-length, have proven an excellent addition to that list.
Windhand – Windhand (Forcefield Records)
The year’s definitely still young, but it seems like 2012 has already proven itself a great time for more traditionally-minded doom metal bands to kick out some really killer material. Between Pallbearer, Pilgrim, and the first Saint Vitus album in a decade and a half, the number of bands who can successfully channel Sabbath, Pentagram, and Pagan Altar, while still retaining a distinct, non-derivative sound, has remained remarkably high. Richmond’s Windhand, who recently released their debut full-length, have proven an excellent addition to that list. Over the past few years, they’ve created a sound that’s heavy without sacrificing melody, darkly psychedelic without coming off as pretentious or self-indulgent, and well-versed in its antecedents without ever seeming like a direct rip-off.
The album begins with the sound of cicada drone and a distant thunderstorm – sort of like a Richmond front porch re-imagining of the first thirty-eight seconds or so of Black Sabbath’s debut. This interlude pops up again in between each song on the record’s first side, each time offering a brief respite, a subtle atmospheric touch that provides some breathing room between the pounding dirges present on the rest of the album. But these brief lulls are few and far between, and the songs propel themselves with an intensity rarely seen in bands like this. Windhand’s sound isn’t the plodding dirge favored by many doom bands (though they definitely have some slow moments), instead largely favoring an insistent mid-tempo pace that keeps the songs from dragging. Occasional effects-heavy guitar solos punctuate the low-end pummeling, but the emphasis is primarily on the riffs, the big, churning masses of sound that give the material its considerable heft.
Overtop of this tonal morass come the vocals of Dorthia Cottrell, a rare metal singer who just belts it out rather than relying on any of the standard metal approaches of growling, screaming, or singing in a stilted quasi-operatic voice. The melodic sheen that Cottrell’s voice casts over these songs is one of their strongest defining factors, emphasizing the power of the songwriting itself by underscoring that the songs aren’t just strings of riffs plowing ahead without direction. The album’s production pulls all the elements together, and couldn’t be better suited to a band like Windhand – each instrument is balanced and audible without the overall results being too clean-sounding, allowing everything to coalesce into a warm, distorted sonic blend that’s miles ahead of the sort of sterile digital bullshit favored by so many bands today.
While Windhand doesn’t necessarily break any new ground with their music, it’s executed so well that it’s hard to imagine anybody who’s at all interested in this style of music not wanting to pick up what they’re putting down. They represent a great deal of what these types of bands can do right, and their comprehensive understanding of how to make songs like these work goes a long way towards separating them from the legions of bands who think that a few riffs and some big amps are all it takes to play doom metal. There’s not a note out of place, no content that comes off forced or false; only the steady unfurling of some of the best music this genre has to currently offer.
