Diesto

All that gloomy weather in Portland, OR has finally found its musical incarnation. Slowly dragging out their lumbering, doom-fuelled melancholy, Diesto offer up a new take on music that's so absurdly slow and heavy it inspires suicidal tendencies. Opener "Beyond The Graves" packs in nine minutes of melodic Neur-Isis, combating the mind devils Eyehategod have been struggling to exorcise forever. Travelling down that path for another 45 minutes, High As The Sun's ensuing six tracks only serve to amplify that sensation, embracing Sleep's epic Jerusalem, to the point where they might actually be its true creators. Still, thanks to a decidedly melodic twist, there's more than the genre's typical grind, grind and grind-some-more mentality. "All Eyes Upon You" is a vicious dirge capable of breeding vivid nightmares, while "Waiting For the Fall" will make Mastodon wish to revisit Leviathan. Bold, epic and daunting, while still groove-based enough to stay catchy, High As The Sun is a striking blast of monolithic metal.