As Roo would attest, I’ve always avoided anything ‘doom’; I fear, however, Zatokrev will become a bridge into the doomy mire, dragging me into his world of Hawaiian shirts, whereby words like stoner will become a common term in my lexicon. Zatokrev’s self termed sludge-apocalypse is ideal for this bridge to that psychedelic realm due to the wide variety of sounds it incorporates; with elements of Sludge, Stoner, Black Metal, Prog-Metal, Psychedelic Rock, Post-Hardcore.

Despite such elements, however, it remains coherent. The underlying sound is clearly ‘doom’, a mixture of stoner and sludge, with riffs and tempos you can head bang along to and quite easily lose yourself in. It is the use of black and death metal, as well as post-hardcore, however, where it becomes really interesting. Using these elements to forge an otherworldy and interesting soundscape, without monotony, where head banging is still a possibility but built within an atmosphere you could cut with a knife; once again bridging two different worlds- those of the hypnotic and rifftastic. A seamless transition exists between the ambience, the calm before the storm, quickly punctuated by inhuman outbursts underwritten by extremely heavy drumming. The distorted guitars and screechingly tormenting vocals add another layer to the groove, but somehow it all fits together, creating an album that is as interesting as it is full of depth and variety.

Critics have pointed to its length, as well as the predictability of it all. They must be better critics than me, because the album kept surprising me, kept drawing me into its atmosphere; time seemed of no consequence as it dragged me deeper and deeper into the mire, where, following the soundscapes, I flittered between calm acceptance at my fate and a hectic lashed frenzy, attempting to draw breath.