I actually saw this Boston trio in Toronto last summer, when they played the basement of the Smiling Buddha with Moon Curse and Ol’ Time Moonshine. And with all due apologies to said moon units, Rozamov was definitely the heaviest band on the bill. I half-expected my old landlord to come down and tell ‘em to cut that racket out, or something…
While they’ve already got a couple EPs to their name, this is the band’s first full-length album, due out in March on Battleground Records, with five tracks clocking in at just over 40 minutes. The title track kicks things off, a sludgy, gloomy, 11-minute epic that brings early Zoroaster to mind… although the vocals are sort of a cross between Scott Kelly and Karl Simon. (There’s just something about that phrasing that screams TGOS.) It does take a proggier, more melodic turn around the midway mark, ending up somewhat closer to Isis or a more primal Neurosis, with shades of a gloomier UK outfit like The Wounded Kings.
“Wind Scorpion” is equally bleak and sludgy, adding a few guttural vocals into the mix, another patience-tester at nearly nine minutes. It flows neatly into “Serpent Cult,” another slow, downtuned stomper, somewhat reminiscent of Unearthly Trance. After a two-minute instrumental interlude, the album ends with “Inhumation,” another similar sounding, 11-minute post-sludge heavy number.
While this recording isn’t lacking in low end, these tunes don’t quite come off quite as crushing on record as they do in the live setting. It also isn’t quite as much fun listening to these samey-sounding songs when they aren’t subsequently melting your face off.
rozamov.bandcamp.com/album/this-mortal-road
