As we’ve explored before in depth, doom metal and its associated subgenres love a lengthy track revolving around an expansive narrative. Past examples have tackled everything from personal loss to weed-fuelled pilgrimages, but none have proven quite as consistently intense as the debut release from South Coast riff maniacs Wallowing. We introduced the band roughly half a year ago, premiering a demo alongside an in-depth interview with the group, which can be read here. Now, said demo is mixed and mastered, ready to comprise one part of a single 32-minute epic inspired by science fiction and the fucked-up state of the world in 2019.
Self-described by the band as “if crusties wrote 2112,” Planet Loss finds an inch-perfect middle ground between ruthless barbarism and adventurous experimentation, fusing overwhelming sludge with unbridled grindcore as a layer of dense noise weighs heavily over each and every gnarly riff. Running throughout is a latent progressiveness, which sees the volatile release bounce thrillingly from one style to the next.
For the album itself, you’ll have to wait until 13th September when it drops through Sludgelord Records in the UK and Black Voodoo Records in the US, but today Astral Noize is thrilled to bring you a sneak preview of the release in the form of an official trailer. Scroll down to view it in full, as well as sneak previews of the exclusive vinyl release, featuring awesome artwork from Luke Oram.
The band explain: “Planet Loss is a concept album utilising a single track broken into six chapters. Excluding the ‘Prologue’ and ‘Epilogue’, which we use to set the tone of the story and record, the four main chapters each focus on a separate cause of the decay of civilisation and the planet. With ‘Earthless’ speaking of the current state of the world politically and otherwise, ‘Phosgene’ focusing around homophobia, classism, racism, sexism and discrimination of all kinds, whilst ‘Hail Creation’ is a sarcastic remark at being born into a failed system and ‘Vessel’ details the stigma behind mental health and the topic as a whole.”
“We have employed the use of sci-fi visuals and metaphors to draw parallels between current day events and seemingly fictitious horror stories (fiction such as Orwells’ 1984 never felt more relevant than today) to highlight some of the absurdities that keep our planet from moving forward and progressing.”
“The overall piece tells the story of a small rebellion fighting their last battle against an oppressive regime, only for both parties, inevitably, to be wiped out by human ignorance. We brought this story to life through the use of vivid soundscape work performed live by one of our vocalists, along with additional elements and sci-fi oddities supplied by producer Wayne Adams (Petbrick, Big Lad) who it was great to collaborate with. Wayne’s effort and attention to detail is clear when listening to the album, and he was 100% the right person to work with to give Planet Loss the scale and depth it deserves.”
Planet Loss is out 13th September on Sludgelord Records. Click here to pre-order it on vinyl or here to pre-order a digital version. In the meantime, why not check out Aerosol Jesus, featuring two members of Wallowing, or our interview with King Goat, with whom Wallowing share a drummer.
Words: George Parr
Photo: Amber Boyden
