Saturday 4 August 2018

Kurokuma - Dope Rider (EP Review)


Release date: July 30th 2018. Label: Doom Stew Records Format: CD/DD/Cassette/Vinyl

Dope Rider – Tracklisting

1.Dope Rider pt. 1 05:13
2.Dope Rider pt. 2 08:05

Review

Underground UK Sludge Metallers – Kurokuma – return with their latest EP – Dope Rider. This is a concept EP based on the legendary comic strip of the same name written by Paul Kirchner for High Times beginning in the 1970s.

I only know a little bit of both Dope Rider and Paul Kirchner. As one of my pals is a huge fan of Paul’s work and he provided me on the backstory of Dope Rider before writing this review. Though I’m only here to concentrate on the music. If you want to find out more about Dope Rider and Paul Kirchner then I suggest you head over to Paul Kirchner’s brilliantly entertaining blog here.

Anyway. Kurokuma have recently gained some major attention being part of the recently released documentary – The Doom Doc. As Joe Allen from the band is part of Holy Spider Promotions which is the major focus of the acclaimed documentary. So any new music from Kurokuma is only a good thing.

And they deliver the goods with this fucked up heavy sludge metal assault on the senses. The EP contains 2 songs and lasts for 13 minutes. Kurokuma create brutally heavy progressive Doom/Sludge Metal sounds. Maybe taking influence from CONAN but still creating their own distinctive style of music.

The vocals are brutally raw and real. This is perhaps Kurokuma’s most grittiest and most realised record to date. Its’ best to listen judge this EP as one epic song instead of two parts. The music is constantly bleak and Kurokuma try their hand at different things on Dope Rider.

The overall sound is perhaps one the best parts of the EP. Which isn’t surprising since Sam Thredder (Slabdragger) recorded the EP and Chris Fielding (CONAN) mixed and mastered the EP. So what you have here on Dope Rider is the one of the best upcoming UK Sludge Metal bands working with two of the most highly regarded UK Doom Metal musicians and the results are amazing.

Words by Steve Howe

You can buy Dope Rider via Doom Stew Records.

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