Thursday, 1 November 2018

DOMKRAFT - Flood (Album Review)


Release date: October 19th 2018. Label: Blues Funeral Recordings. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Flood – Tracklisting

1.Landslide 09:55
2.The Watchers 04:46
3.Flood 05:31
4.They Appear to be Alive 01:22
5.Sandwalker 07:28
6.Octopus 04:39
7.Dead Eyes, Red Skies 08:09

Members

Martin Widholm - Guitar
Martin Wegeland - Bass & Vocals
Anders Dahlgren -Drums

Review

Domkraft new album Flood carries on the psychedelic sounds of the first album. Flood feels and sounds like an actual chapter of the band’s progression from their last album. Though Flood has a more darker and unforgiving nature with the overall feel of the album. Domkraft manage to include many different musical elements on this album with Prog, Psych, Stoner, Doom, Sludge and Post-Whatever style sounds.

Opening song – Landslides is 10 minutes of heavy post doom and gloom sonic riffery with the band creating a bleak and complex sound. The lyrics have quite an “end of the world” feel and that only adds to the overall gloomy nature of the song. Domkraft manage to stop for breath and take a step back and play a laid back Post-Rock Psychedelic groove before returning to a familiar heavy complex Sludge Rock sound.

Second song – The Watchers – opens with a standard Sludge/Stoner Rock riff with a swirling ambient sound that explodes into a loud progressive wall of noise. The vocals are superbly handled by Martin. This song is less flashy and experimental compared to the previous song. Perhaps down to the band having less time to play with or wanting to show a different side to their music.

Third song – Flood – sees Domkraft settle for a standard hybrid Sludge/Doom/Psych/Stoner Metal sound for this song and the remainder of the album. Though this song does allow the band to experiment and play different types of music. Perhaps influenced by Ufomammut and Slomatics too closely at times. This doesn’t stop Domkraft dazzling listeners with a wide array of heavy guitar riffs.

Fourth song – They Appear To Be Alive – is an instrumental post-rock song with a sombre gloomy atmosphere.

Fifth song – Sandwalker – carries on the unforgiving slow-paced gloomy nature of the openings songs. However this ranks as one of the best songs on the album. As Domkraft play this song with real human emotion and leave you wanting more especially when the heavy doom based riffs fully take over.

The final 2 songs Octopus and “Dead Eyes, Red Skies” offer two final rounds of heavy progressive Sludge/Stoner Metal songs that leave many questions unanswered. As the overall story of the album feels incomplete. Perhaps to be continued on Domkraft’s next album.

Flood is a stunning, bold and quite complex album that will have you listening for a long time. It may not be as assessable as their debut album but Domkraft prove they’re on the right path in forging an exciting future for themselves.

The album is made stronger by the stellar production compared to their debut album. Is Flood a better album than their debut album. I’m still struggling to make a firm decision on that one. Let’s be pleased that Domkraft have released another brilliantly entertaining album.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Jadd at Red Lead PR for the promo. Flood is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via Blues Funeral Recordings.

Links:

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