There is a wide ranging array of sounds in the doom metal subgenre. There is everything from the traditional sounding bands like Gates Of Slumber and Hour And 13, to the noisy doom of bands like Eyehategod, and even avant-garde doom in the form of Sunn.

Depending on your predilection, one type of doom, might not be your exact cup of poison. Chicago doomsters and recent Relapse signees Indians fall more into the more sludgy camp, tempering their riffs, with blackening drones, screeches of noise, and raspy black metal-inspired vocals. For some people, this isn’t the easiest to swallow, but in the hands of an excellent band it reaches beyond the genre and touches on something truly individual and great. In the case of Indian, they’ve managed to take some of the standard doom signatures and forge a wholly individual and excellent sound.

See, they’ve found a way to keep it heavy and sludgy, but with enough sense of dynamics to separate them from the crowd. Part of this has to do with the production. It captures the band in all their raw, primal glory, but it’s also clear enough that it lets every instrument be heard without devolving into a wall of noise. It’s still plenty noisy, but it’s punchy, too. The guitar tones are sick and thick, the bass booms and the drums are pounding, but fucking massive in their own right. Another good thing is that the band tends to keep things on the shorter side of the doom metal equation, the last track being sole exception, but even that is lifted above the clones with its sense of dynamics.

So, Indian have crafted a winner on their third record and Relapse debut. This comes highly recommended for all fans of the slow, low, and noisy.

(Relapse Records, PO Box 2060, Upper Darby, PA 19082)