Release Date: June 30th 2023. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: CD/DD/Tape
Trace The Veins: Tracklisting
1.The Barrens 04:11
2.Spellcaster 05:49
3.Carried To The Pit 05:35
4.Unearth The Tombs 06:04
5.Vultures 06:40
6.Crown The Virgin 06:11
Review:
Trace The Veins is the debut album from Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metallers Green Inferno who play a harsh style of down-tempo WEEDIAN grooves with brutal death growls to match. Green Inferno play a LOW & SLOW style of music with mighty levels of aggression with Electric Wizard SLABS OF DOOM making an early appearance on the opening track The Barrens.
The Barrens has a more demonic Psychedelic energy with soaring grooves that offer moments of brief doomed out distortion. The vocals are not what you expect for a Doom/Stoner Metal album such as this but it allows Green Inferno to bring their Sludge Metal ambitions into play with some demonic guitar solos being played in the background.
Second song Spellcaster continues the warped and down-tuned journey with the vocals becoming less violent but still being harsh and very abrasive. The clean based vocals allows the band to add a more understandable narrative to come through with the gloomy lyrics written for this track. The AMPLIFIER DISTORTED sounds reign supreme though still being played to a slow-to-mid pace which has slight influences to bands such as CONAN and SLEEP. Green Inferno experiment more with SONIC DISTORTION on the later stages of the track with some of the best Psychedelic moments appearing on this track alone.
Third song Carried To The Pit is another dark and despairing WEEDIAN based tale with Green Inferno marching along to a more bass heavy gloomy beat. The song does take time to fully find its creative groove and rhythm with the band playing drone based extended riffs before a sublime Psychedelic Stoner groove is added. Green Inferno become more immersed with Sludge Metal atmospherics on this song which allows to be one of the standout tracks on the album.
The second half of the album follows the same creative journey across three other tracks the album contains with perhaps Unearth The Tombs and Crown The Virgin offering the more violentimnd heaviest grooves on the entire record. There are shades of Post-Doom and Post-Sludge on this part of the album.
The production values on Trace The Veins are superbly stylish with Monolord’s Esben Willems proving once again why he is one of the absolute best in mixing and mastering albums at his famed Studio Berserk. As he provides stellar work on this album which gives it a swirling style of heaviness that you may actually hear on recent Monolord albums. Domenick Dimasi deserves a mention for his role in recording this great album. He’s managed to capture a band at their most raw and primal which is shown throughout the album.
Trace The Veins is an absolute BEAST of an album from Green Inferno which showcases the more evil and violent of the Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal underground scene.
Embrace The Darkness at your own risk!!!
Words by Steve Howe
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