Gathering Strengths/Blood Seed

2011 two CD release, the fourth album from the Boise, Idaho-based Metal act. The first half of the 40-minute piece is made up of swirling Folk-Drone that slowly shifts into fractured, crushing heaviness underpinned by a massive, heaving sludge riff. After the drums fall away and the din dissipates into hazy clouds of amp buzz, soft wisps of violin lick at the edges of feedback. Beginning with the distant howl of wolves, a chorus of strange, nocturnal cries builds, evoking images of a midnight doom ritual performed by a coven of witches, a serpentine sludge-feast that stretches out to the very end of the album.