Album Review: Cold Black River – Tales of Death and the Devil (Self Released)

The cold black river flows onwards, carrying the dead to places unknown, or as the Madison, Wisconsin band put it, “Anywhere Ya Wanna”. The trio are set to drop their third release of dusty doom rock spiced up with that bluesy riffin’ vibe, and Tales of Death & The Devil is a humdinger – the third in a row after 2 well-received EPs, and this time the band are even more sinister and mysterious.

Tales of Death and the Devil will be released on CD on June 14th 2019. The digital version is already available.

Keeping things moody, really moody is Cold Black River. Doom rock played at a monotonous pace. It’s so mind-numbing in its approach, that it’s not until the third track in that Tales of Death and the Devil bursts into life.

That track is Keep Rollin’ and it’s sense of urgency is very welcome. The riffs are still dusty and fuzzy but the tempo is higher and the first appearance of vocals makes a lot of difference. Especially as the twang fits the bluesy mix of heaviness perfectly.

Energy boosted, Among the Stars does slow things down again but it’s far more palatable. Simply because here the melody and vocals do a lot of the heavy lifting. The super-fuzz then returns for Oh My Goddess, the best track on the album as the groove just makes you want to shake about.

The dust continues to blow leaving a fine layer of dirt over everything Cold Black River produce here. It’s choking yet at times, exhilarating. Vengeance of the Clouds gives us this really deep sounding bassiness before Anywhere You Wanna, Numbers Station (Revisited) and Androids Entrance end things in style.

Cold Black River – Tales of Death and the Devil Full Track Listing:

1. Numbers Station
2. The Deserts of Mars
3. Keep Rollin’
4. Among the Stars
5. Oh My Goddess
6. Vengeance of the Clouds
7. Anywhere You Wanna
8. Numbers Station (Revisited)
9. Androids Entrance

Links

Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube