Cough / Windhand

Both doom metal bands that contributed to this EP, Cough and Windhand, hail from Richmond, VA. The product of their collective effort is as bleak and chilled as the coldest late spring. Cough offer the suffocating "Athame," a swampy, deeply distorted piece of musical quicksand that constantly threatens to choke and swallow the listener. A full 18 minutes of crushing weight, "Athame" evokes the idea of a solar eclipse — darkest at its apex. The first track from Windhand, "Amaranth," is more frantic, relieving some of the gloomy tension and replacing it with panic. There's a clawing desperation to the peaks and crescendos of this song that serves as a foil for the stiller and much more restrained "Shepherd's Crook," which exudes an oily confidence and eerie calm that convince the listener they are being led astray.