Richmond might have recently put Virginia on the map when it comes to downtuned doom, with outfits ranging from Cough to Inter Arma to Windhand, but the sludge seems to be seeping eastward to another college town an hour away.
Beldam hails from Charlottesville, home of the Hoos, and their debut album is as gritty and dispiriting as UVa’s suffocating defence, with seven shot-clock-stopping tracks of full-court sludge.
“Needles” begins with a slow-paced attack that recalls Cough or Primitive Man, with a rather unsettling refrain of “insects into my skin.” “Blackened Violet” drops things down another notch, a lurching death/doom number served up Coffins style, before going right back to the well of despair on “The Foundling,” adding just a few melodic post-sludge flourishes over the course of this eight-minute opus.
If the likes of Primitive Man, Coffins, Yellowtooth et al get yer blood percolating, then this record is certainly worth checking out.
hpgd.bandcamp.com/album/still-the-wretched-linger
