MOONSTONE - Moonstone

Release date December 28/19 (Galactic Smokehouse)

The Mighty Decibel's #2 doom album of 2020 (okay honorary, given that it was released Dec 28/19!)

By many measures, this just may be the heaviest album of all time ... certainly it's the heaviest slab of doom metal these bedraggled ears has ever heard. Seemingly starting at the point where Sabbath delved on the Master of Reality crater-maker, Moonstone then uses the hand of doom to dig ever deeper in an incessant dive toward the Earth's core. If you're blessed with a good sound system, turn this debut up full blast and let your bowels be cooked in the rumbling distortion created by the rhythm section from hell. This shit ain't for the faint of heart.

In no hurry to take you as far below as you dare, this Polish three-piece lurch forward with arcing swaths of monumental riffage delivered in eight-to-ten minute doses, making this an almost hypnotic listening experience. But make no mistake, this isn't just slow-on-purpose droning, this is large Iommi-esque riffing pounded into your kidneys, leaving your innards bloodied and bruised.

My general rule is that I do not assign perfect ten-out-of-ten scores until having lived with an album for at least six months. I fully expect this one to escalate to that landmark level given some time.

All hail the church of the sub-woofer!

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