There are a few two piece acts out there and while Om is arguably the most stunning of them all, Black Cobra is probably up there after this album-in-question is taken into account. Debut album getting a fair bit of airplay and a cozy place somewhere in the top of the 2006 heap? Fuck yeah. Bestial was indeed the shit and is one of the newer albums I gladly burn for anyone willing to get into some of my kind of music.

Just released on At A Loss Recordings, Feather & Stone is the smashing new album by these Cali Sludgers. Jason Landrian effortlessly handles guitars and vocals with Rafael Martinez (who incidentally plays bass for Acid King) is your mandatory monster drummer.

Completely raging sludge-doom-stoner is on the cards here and is done with so much authority, I'm going to call this type of music Sludooner from now onwards. Fuzzy down-tuned doom tinged thrashy sludge riffs, wild drumming and tortured screams is generally how it all goes, with subtle and occasional clean guitar parts to decorate songs. The exception being the nicely placed Thanos, a beautiful clean instrumental track bang in the middle of the album reminding one of western-era Earth. Songs are to-the-point and short, unlike the elaborate jammy-bluesy-psychedelic-stoner shit that some of us here have often been listening to. That floats our boat damn well too really, but I dig the in-your-face hardcore attitude these guys possess. Riffs come right at you one after another and songs are done-with in a little over two minutes more often than not. Dragon & Phoenix, at 4:40 almost seems like an epic in this context and it just fades out with some clean guitars followed by Ascension which has some more intricate clean guitars both to begin and end the song. I really dig the writing here. In a nutshell, it takes off where Bestial left and the end product is a lot more satisfactory.

Did you like the new High on Fire? Did you enjoy the new Weedeater? And for that matter, how did you like that new Orange Goblin? If your answer is yes to more than one, Get this bitch. Get this, bitch. This slab has it all and is up there with the best of the whole Sludooner ballpark.

Year of Release: 2007

Label: At A Loss Recordings