Crestfallen is an appropriate title for these Floridans’ debut – not just because the teardrop doom they embark upon is the sort to approximate your life’s worst experiences, but because the lack of flair, pizzazz or anything that prevents them from falling into a pool of generic doom will leave you feeling like something is missing.
Much of what this trio delivers may be plenty heavy in the departments of distortion, sustain and thunderous drums that mimic cannon fire, but overall a sense of formlessness dominates. There’s a jaggedness to the tone and mood, but Weltesser’s riffs don’t possess the resolution to sustain intent and impact. Repetition is their Achilles heel as chord progressions rumble, but wander aimlessly. The album’s opening salvo, Regret and Guide, offer a stunning lack of cohesion in terms of songwriting focus, justifying long-standing criticisms about how sludge/doom is the same handful of dragged out stomp’n’crush with little rhyme or reason outside of distortion piled on to instruments tuned to insanely lowered depths.
