Pombagira: Flesh Throne Press

Devotional duo take the scenic route on album number six

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After years of self-releasing their music in the wake of 2013’s two-track, psych/sludge epic, Maleficia Lamiah, the British husband-and-wife team finally saw some reward for their years of unsung labour by inking a deal with Finnish label Svart.

With Svart being home to some of the best and most committedly left-field doom and psychedelic bands around, the duo have surely found the perfect partners, certainly if the sprawling and alternately ponderous and punishing Flesh Throne Press is any indication.

Having left behind their more furious and directly doomy elements on 2011’s Iconoclast Dream, follow-up Maleficia Lamiah saw the pair start on a far more experimental and, importantly, melodic journey, with guitarist/vocalist Pete Hamilton-Giles backing up much of the richly fuzzed and warmly impenetrable riffs with soaring, clean vocals, and it’s in this vein that Flesh Throne Press continues.

With the 13 tracks spread over two discs, experimentalism has somewhat been honed into directness, with the likes of the mournful, one-minute Soul Seeker being as affecting in its own right as the gargantuan, 14-minute slog of the title track./o:p