Release Date: March 25th 2022. Record Label: Self Released. Format: DD
D2E0M2O2 [CHAPTERS] - Tracklisting
Wasted Breath
Far Away From Home
Crushed By The Weight
Members
Erik Bigelow - Everything
The Lowdown
Shallow Black is the new project from Erik Bigelow who is the drummer of acclaimed Doom/Stoner Metal outfit EMBR. Erik is striking on his own for this project and I’ll let the man himself tell you all about Shallow Black.
"I had a very sleepless night one night and thought to myself “I’m going to write an EP in a month. I’m gonna write all the guitars, keyboards, bass, vocals, drums, lyrics, then I’m going to go record it.”
Then as my brain kept firing off ideas…..”you know what? I’m gonna try and record it myself too…”
I woke up the next morning with that idea clawing away at me….later that day I decided to give that a go. And even added the task of shooting a video. That’s basically the way this project started. So, for the next week I wrote. Then, I started down the path of recording everything in my basement.
I thought it was good enough to release, got some feedback from friends and decided to release it digitally. What resulted is the demo “chapters”. It’s recorded as 1 song split into sections or chapters.
When writing the goal was to write something that was catchy but also drawn out enough to zone out to. I wanted to use samples and bleeds. I achieved my goal for this release and it’s going to be released on 3/25/2022…….
Instruments used were slingerland drums, a bass vi, a sg, keyboards.
I have plans to release more music in the coming months…..as ideas present themselves
Review
D2E0M2O2 [CHAPTERS] is the debut release from Shallow Black and follows a dark path of Dark Doom, Sludge Metal and Industrial Metal. The record runs for around 32 minutes and is a totally different beast compared to EMBR with Erik on mesmerising but bleak form. The sound is quite gloomy and isolated with the industrial beats and sound-clips that appear on the first few moments of the record.
With heavy digitized sounds merged with the slow-paced sludgy guitars you can feel that Shallow Black are dictating their music at their own pace. I’ve never heard Erik sing these types of vocals before. They’re firmly within the Sludge Metal movement. Harsh and fucking primal in cases when Erik delivers an EVIL GROWL with the lush bleak Psychedelic soundscapes giving an almost Ambient Doom effect. The record is constantly evolving to the next level of pure distorted Doom/Sludge Metal heaviness and makes you wonder if this is the same guy behind the drums with EMBR.
Parts NIN, SUNN 0))), Electric Wizard and the pure evil heaviness of Primitive Man but with Erik fully in creative control. The production is a mixture of 80's DIY Crust Punk ethics and 90's Industrial and Doom Metal sounds that can be quite harsh and static but never boring. This is a dangerously and exciting blend of music that has some epic riffs contained within despite the gloomy subject matter and the genres that Erik has used for this release.
Distortion and Gloom is the main order of business for this release and Shallow Black has released a chilling and bone-crunching release especially with the second chapter FAR AWAY FROM HOME that starts around the 11 minutes mark. My favourite part of the EP. As Erik takes a step back and plays a nightmarish style of Post-Doom and Post-Metal atmospherics whilst buried under a layer of Psychedelic based Industrial Noise that remains some of the heaviest “LOW & SLOW” and “AMPLIFIER WORSHIP” I’ve heard for quite some time.
The third track Crushed By The Weight features some stunning dual vocal performances by Erik and his hugely talented wife and EMBR bandmate Crystal provides wonderfully passionate eerie vocals that brings a brief ray of hope underneath the heavy distorted sounds.
Overall, D2E0M2O2 [CHAPTERS] is a one hell of a debut release and I applaud Erik for going to the far depths of his musical imagination for this release. If you’re in the mood for bleak based music that pulls no punches then Shallow Black is the band for you.
This is a brilliantly frightening and beautifully heavy experience.
Words by Steve Howe
You can experience the full premiere of the new song WASTED BREATH from D2E0M2O2 [CHAPTERS] which will be released on March 25th 2022 via BandCamp. Other Digital Platforms will follow at a later date.
The song and video for WASTED BREATH will be free to view and hear on BandCamp as well.
Links
Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram
You can buy merch from this link
