Shallow Black - Maladroit Matter (Album Review)

 

Release Date: 30th November 2022. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

Maladroit Matter: Tracklisting

1.Some of the Old Songs, Sam 03:16

2.Digital Bath 04:08

3.I Feel You 04:39

4.Closure 05:45

5.Venus Blue 04:24

6. To Bring You My Love 05:09

7.I am the Moth 07:16

Members:

Erik Bigelow - Everything

Review

Shallow Black returns with another album with Maladroit Matter. This one is a different album compared to the other releases that Shallow Black has offered so far. This album features two original songs (Some Of The Old Songs, Sam and I Am The Moth) and five covers from bands such as Acid Bath, Chevelle, Deftones, Depeche Mode and PJ Harvey. 

Maladroit Matter is the usual mix of Industrial Metal, Doom Metal, Sludge Metal and gloomy Heavy Metal grooves being added to the mix. The two original songs are what we come to expect from Erik under his Shallow Black persona. Gloomy down-tuned industrial sounds forged with a Doom/Sludge Metal mentality with a dark twisted vibe behind them both especially on Some Of The Old Songs, Sam that opens the album in superbly entertaining fashion. 

I loved the slow-pace nature of the song which allows Erik to show a more Drone style of music that I haven’t heard from him before and it’s a cool sound with a solitary feeling from the song.

The next five tracks is Shallow Black doing his own take on the following tracks

Digital Bath - Deftones

I Feel You - Depeche Mode

Closure - Chevelle

Venus Blue - Acid Bath

To Bring You My Love - PJ Harvey

All these are fantastic covers though I wasn’t fully sold on Digital Bath the first time I heard it. As it doesn’t stray too far from the original but after repeated listens, I noticed the little things in the background such as Post-Doom sounds being added which allows it to be one of the strongest covers on the album.

Shallow Black offers a more reflective and Industrial take on these tracks especially on I Feel You, Venus Blue and To Bring You Love. 

It’s great to see Crystal Bigelow from EMBR make an impressive vocal appearance on Closure. I am not really a fan of Chevelle, but this is a great track for Erik and Crystal to show off their musical talents once again.

Maladroit Matter has a quality LOFI and DIY feel to it all and allows Shallow Black to explore many different sides we haven’t heard from them before. I applaud Erik for doing something different and being one of the most interesting and exciting solo artists currently within the Doom/Sludge Metal underground scene.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

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SHALLOW BLACK Announces New Release MALADROIT [MATTER] And Here is Song Premiere And Cover Of Acid Bath Classic VEUNS BLUE

Post-Metal/Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal Solo Artists SHALLOW BLACK returns with a new release called MALADROIT [MATTER]. Details below.

MALADROIT [MATTER] is a collection of cover songs reimagined by SHALLOW BLACK. The track list includes Depeche Mode, Chevelle and Acid Bath. All cover-songs chosen are compositions that inspire SHALLOW BLACK. This release also has 2 originals songs . The first track (Some of the Old Songs, Sam) is an outtake from THE SECOND MANUSCRIPt. The last track (I am the Moth) is an original about a jealous lover.

You can hear the first track from this superb release with a great cover of an Acid Bath classic.

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Shallow Black - The Second Manuscript (Album Review) And Exclusive Album Premiere

Date Released: October 28th 2022. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD

The Second Manuscript: Tracklisting

Intro

Chapter One (Consume-ate)

Chapter Two (Burning At The Ends)

Cleanser

Chapter Three (Damn-Age)

Manipulation Of The Human Soul By A Blind Robot Vomiting Algorithms

Chapter 4&5 (King Venom + Hack)

Something In The Way

Members

Erik Bigelow - Everything

Review

Shallow Black return with their next exciting dark and bleak chapter. The Second Manuscript continues the distorted and industrial based journey they made with their first album. The album is quite a gloomy and experimental take on Experimental Doom/Sludge Metal. With Erik taking a more digitised hardcore sound to the album especially on the violent opening song Intro. Parts NIN in places, this heavily stylised and digitised version of Doom/Sludge Metal is a tough listen but Erik pulls no punches with this gloomy offering.

Second song Chapter One (Consume-ate) is less volatile but still remains cautiously bleak and heavy in all the right places. Offering a grungier and industrial style of Post-Black Metal, Doom and Sludge Metal, the song is more riff-centric with Shallow Black adding warped Psychedelic elements to the song. The song is quite fast-paced with the harsh sludgy vocals having a slight Post-Metal feel. The song runs near the eight minutes mark and Shallow Black pulls out all the stops by bringing a more Extreme style of music that I didn't expect. The instrumental work is aggressive and perhaps too raw in places but Erik remains true to his creative self with some epic riffs being played against a backdrop of Industrial/Noise/Ambient/Glitch based sounds.

Third song Chapter Two (Burning At The Ends)  sees Erik draw influence from bands such as the Post Metal world but still retaining that harsh Sludge Metal backdrop. The creepy soundbytes and soundscapes offer a more Occult/Doom based theme that allows Erik to throw some classic distorted Doom Metal riffage along the way. The song is still driven by heavy Industrial tones and experimental vibes for one of the standout tracks on the album. When the Progressive elements appear, the album does become more challenging to listen to. However, it's still a wicked style of Extreme Metal that offers many moments of extended guitar solos that make you want to hear more of.

Fourth track Cleanser is another short paced track that matches the experimental vision of the opening track but perhaps not the heaviness or intensity of the song. Though, it's good for Erik to slow things down a bit for the listener to gather their thoughts before the next round of nightmarish sound that he plays on the album.

Fifth song Chapter Three (Damn Age) continues the story from Chapter Two but maybe with elements of Church Of Misery and Electric Wizard based Stoner grooves at the start of the song. That was another unexpected surprise. As Erik pays homage to his Stoner Metal roots on this track whilst still bringing a whole style of Post-Blackened heaviness to the album. The song is one of the most stylish offerings on the album with Erik's vocal delivery and Ambient/Trance/Spaced Out rhythms building upto an exciting finish. The song perhaps focuses more on catchy riffs than levels of pure aggression. Though, it's still another punishing song to listen to at times.

The next song Manipulation Of The Human Soul By A Blind Robot Vomiting Algorithms is more of Ambient/Industrial track with a heavy digitised vocal performance which can be quite relevant and chilling at the same time.

Seventh song Chapter 4&5 (King Venom + Hack) has been bundled together which opens with an iconic speech from legendary movie The Matrix. This track feels like it could have easily came from the soundtrack of the classic movie. The song is nineties Industrial metal through and through but with that Experimental Doom/Sludge Metal sound that Erik has used for the majority of the album keeping things modern and brutally heavy at the same time.. The song does take time to fully get going but when Erik hits form, the riffs are intense with a sublime Psychedelic/Trance edge. 

The final song is what impressed me the most with a cover of Nirvana classic Something In The Way. A song that has gained more momentum since the release of The Batman film. Erik's version doesn't stray too far from the original with a more colder offering. The song veers from Grunge, Post-Punk and Industrial Metal. The vocals are on the more extreme side but this remains an outstanding cover.

The Second Manuscript is a haunting, bleak and nihilistic release that showcases the more Extreme side to Erik's musical output. However, the album still contains a high amount of great riffs and sounds to fully get behind. 

Shallow Black have released one of the most intense and darkest releases you'll hear this year. This is another must have release from Shallow Black. 

WOW. Now I need a long rest to recover from the darkness of it all....

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Erik for the promo. The Second Manuscript will be available to buy on DD from October 28th 2022.

You can listen to this sublime album with this Exclusive Album Premiere.

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Exclusive Premiere Of SHALLOW BLACK Performing WEEDEATER Classics God Luck And Good Speed / Cain Enabler

Shallow Black only released their debut EP D2E0M2O2 [CHAPTERS] on March 25th 2022. You can read my review here. Shallow Black is the new project from Erik Bigelow who is the drummer of acclaimed Doom/Stoner Metal outfit EMBR.

My brief review was: "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."

Shallow Black have embraced the WEEDIAN Holiday Spirit of 4/20 by releasing these two excellent covers of Weedeater classics God Luck and Good Speed / Cain Enabler which you can hear in full below with this exclusive premiere.

Quite different to Shallow Black's debut release and it's good to see Erik having fun with the more STONER based grooves on offer here.

Thanks to Erik for the info and for the premiere.

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Shallow Black - D2E0M2O2 [CHAPTERS] (Album Review) And Song Premiere Of WASTED BREATH

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.

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