Honestly, this is what I thought I would be hearing the first time I listened to Ahab: the sounds of the titular captain bellowing from the mast at the circling white beast below. That is exactly what Inter Arma sounds like: a fanatic chasing an uncatchable, lumbering beast. The band is from Richmond and already well known for their massive attacks of extreme doom and sludge. This is Inter Arma's third album, and with the backing of Relapse Records they are once more back to grind you to dust under the all-consuming glacier of Paradise Gallows.
You might as well sit down, this is going to take a bit of your time. Clear whatever you had to do for the next hour and 20 minutes, pop in those earbuds, and take sail. Despite not being much for lengthy doom compositions, Inter Arma make it worthwhile. The first proper track, "An Archer in the Emptiness" is filled with wicked guitar hooks. Just because they sound like Charlie Brown's parents in a David Lynch nightmare doesn't mean these massive chords can't have some personality. And the relentless drumming on "Transfiguration" is possibly the best performance on the kit I have heard all year. The way the chaotic and seemingly improvised pounding counterbalances the lumbering guitars is nothing short of genius.
The band goes through a varying areay of extremity, at full blast sounding as vile as Lord Mantis or The Lion's Daughter. In fact the main hook and blackened shrieks on that last track could have fit seemlessly on either of their albums this year. Other times the group is a bit more subdued, allowing only a tinge of harshness as the vocals howl into eternity along with the plodding riffs and snare strikes. I tend to prefer the former, but all of the textures at play here are important to the power of the overall product. You boil this down to only the most extreme tracks and you lose the dynamics that help it flow so well. The piano ballads, the 80's guitar harmonies...it's all crucia.
Along with Monolithe, I may have found my favorite doom releases of 2016. I only tend to consider a handful each year, so it's likely this won't be supplanted until 2017. The sludgey mariner aesthetic, earworm doom hooks, and phenomenal drumming (not something often praised in such a traditionally slow genre) make Paradise Gallows a fascinating and engaging listen from start to finish. I really am impressed with the number of styles they have managed to squeeze out of an old concept. "The Summer Drones," which features some of the band's first clean singing, sounds like Black Sabbath meets Fugazi. That's on a record with songs I just compared to blackened sludge. And rather than becoming an eclectic mess, Inter Arma allow it to all come together as if it was meant to be. Check it out below and watch for the full release this Friday. Full stream right now at NPR.