Whilst Doom Metal isn’t usually a staple of the ukthrashers review list, we have all delved into the Cathedral, Sleep, Penance and Trouble catalogues in our formative years, so when Simon from For The Lost gave us a prod about the latest release from APF Records we thought we’d check out this new (old) release from these Suffolk purveyors of stoner sludge…

“For us this release is a time capsule back to a long weekend, just over a decade ago. January 2010; one of the last months of a band we had formed as teenagers. It was the coldest January since the mid-80s and on the night we recorded it was -8° overnight in London, meaning that even the canals just outside the studio had totally frozen. 

We smashed out all the tracks in one evening, at the studio which was part of the Uni our friend Jason (who recorded us) was studying at. I recall we had to dodge the security guards to crash in the studio overnight. The next day, we had rehearsals for a show, the day after that, at the legendary Crobar in Soho. My memory of that evening is a blur, but apparently it involved us getting a bus full of people getting kicked off of the bus because we managed to break the doors, Christ knows how. 

We also ended up at the opening party for the, now equally legendary, Black Heart and at some point in the night Ted, our guitarist, got headbutted outside a corner shop. Exciting times.”

So what do we think of this 4 track glimpse that has finally surfaced… well firstly at just over 21 minutes, this isn’t one of those Doom EP’s that goes on forever, in fact all the tracks are all fairly condensed and to the point 

Opening track (intro) is a reverb and delay laden atmospheric piece that builds into the launch of the first ‘proper’ track – ‘There’s Nothing Cute About Cobra’s’ which fills the air with the distinctive sludge that you’d expect, sabbath esq riffs, and pummelling bass riffs that lock into the vibe that we have all come to associate with the genre, next track ‘Mandark’ continues in the vein, with drummer and vocalist Jack discharging his tortured and tormented vocals as if the end of the world is nigh! Final track ‘Decapodiformes’ continues the assault of the ears, and bone crushing bass lines that continue to reverberate long after the effects pedals have blown a fuse!

In summary, if heavy as fuck sludge metal that makes the ground quake and the walls tremble is your thing, then blasting out some Toom today should literally fill you with DOOM !!

Out now via APF Records