A Hocht is an 8 track album, and the eigth release for Belfast’s Slomatics, during their eight year of existence. Anyone familiar with Slomatics shouldn’t expect any massive turnaround in musical style, but there are subtle progressions here for a band who have mined the same vein of mind numbingly heavy doom metal their entire career (no bad thing, mind!). This is the band’s third full length and arrives after a slew of splits with various Irish and UK outfits.
The first track ‘Inner Space’ is a declaration of intent; purposely not starting out with a massive riff, but luring you in with a repeated 3 note guitar phrase and a gentle wash of background noise & feedback that slowly builds in intensity, leading into ‘Flame On’, a return to the familiar land of monolithic riffage and gauzy vocals. The idea of space alluded to in the titles of ‘Inner Space’ and ‘Beyond Acid Canyon’ is the key to the difference between this and previous Slomatics releases. There is a wonderful sense of spaciousness to be found here. While many doom bands, Corrupted or Grief say, seek to suffocate the listener with a sense of overwhelming negative energy, the tunes contained within the grooves of A Hocht are more about reflection and looking inward. The illusion of space created by the interaction between the members of the band grants the listener room to fill in the blanks themselves, allowing their minds to wander and extrapolate endlessly.
‘Tramontane’ contains perhaps the most outright catchy, Sabbath-esque riff on the album, along with a slightly out of character keyboard bit, somewhat reminiscent of the ghostly horns from the chorus of Celtic Frost’s ‘Dawn of Meggido’. ‘Blackwood’ provides a few minutes respite from heaviness, allowing the listener time to prepare for the punishing onslaught of ‘Theme From Remora’ and album closer ‘Outer Space’, which is a continuation of the first track, this time around with some frenzied vocals in the mix.
A robust effort from a band who show that they know their way around spacey dynamics as well as gargantuan riffs.
— Ivan Deasy
