January 2022 Feature Release – The Fallen Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Fallen has been nominated by myself. It's 2007's collaborative "Supernaturals - Record One" album from two Italian outfits in sludge/doom metallers Ufomammut & post-sludgers Lento. This record hit me for six over a decade ago now but I've not returned to it since so I'm interested to see if it still has the same impact.

https://metal.academy/releases/18091

OK, so I've given this release three full revisits over the last couple of days & it's nothing short of breath-taking. Not only do I regard it as highly as I did when I first experienced it more than a decade ago now but my feelings may even have developed further. It's quite simply everything I look for in a The Fallen clan release brought together to make up one life-changing package. I'm a big fan of Ufomammut but this transcends anything I've heard from them individually. The way it draws together the crushingly slow riffage of doom metal, the mind-expanding psychedelia of stoner metal & the stripped back tribal structures & slowly building tension-&-release of post-sludge is nothing short of remarkable, as is the production job with the guitar tone being pure perfection for this style of music. I saw someone suggesting that "Supernaturals - Record One" reminded them of Electric Wizard crossed with Neurosis & that's a pretty accurate description as I'd probably tag it as post-stoner doom. Is this a live album as listed on RYM? I very much doubt it but it's a top five metal release for me personally & will comfortably retain its position at the top of my doom metal top ten. Remarkable stuff!

5/5

I'd not even heard of this album before this month's feature and have only the very briefest of dalliances with it's protagonists. The cover is especially uninspiring and gives no clue as to what may be concealed within, so I wasn't completely sure what to expect. Anyway, it all turned out well, because it's heavy, metallized space rock is very much my sort of thing. This is real wall-of-sound stuff, a wall built of the ultra-heavy stoner doom of Sleep and Electric Wizard, cementing it to cosmic-flavoured post-rock, such as that found on Barrows' superb Red Giant album (which this predates by seven years, so may have been an influence on) then reinforcing it with some Hawkwind-style space rock. Some may sniff at the 'Wind comparisons, but the jam during Painful Burns Smoke as the Presence Sets Us Down in Supersonic Waves sounds so much akin to the sort of jams heard on the numerous live versions of classic Hawkwind tracks like You Shouldn't Do That and Brainstorm and The Overload has such a lot in common with The Age of the Micro Man on The Hawklords' 25 Years album that it is impossible to conceive that the UK's veteran cosmic travellers weren't a strong influence. Of course this is way heavier than Hawkwind ever were and certainly has also taken plenty of influence from the best of sludge and atmospheric sludge outfits like Neurosis, ISIS and even Eyehategod. In fact it is so heavy it feels like it creates it's own gravity well and may well be the densest stoner metal ever produced.

I like to think I have a decent imagination and I absolutely love albums that may not possess too much of a narrative of their own, but allow the listener's mind's eye to roam and create it's own narrative structure around the music. Supernaturals - Record One is absolutely one such album and, having listened to it a number of times, I can say it feels like a different journey each time I take it, filled with cosmic power and awe, from the thrusting propulsion of tracks like Infect One and Painful Burns... to the drifting in space, open-mouthed, witnessing of galaxy-wide supernovae sensation of Maestoso. This is absolutely an album in the stoner tradition and I can imagine it would probably take on a whole other level of meaning if listening was pharmaceutically assisted, but those days are long gone for me and I will settle for the raw, unaltered sonic trip as offered up in it's unfiltered form as it is a terrific slab of cosmic metal.

I must admit, all the same, I had to raise an eyebrow, Daniel, when I saw that you had it pegged as your fifth favourite metal album ever, even higher than ANY death metal. Just goes to show how people can surprise you some times, eh? Anyway, for me, I can't in all truth rate it that highly, but it is certainly a fantastic album (in all senses of the word) and is one I will definitely be returning to many times I predict.

4.5/5

This album forced me to do some soul searching (I seem to have done a lot of that lately). Not because this record is bad; in fact, I would say that this album is great and at the very least, bordering on transcendent status. No this record has me questioning what I appreciate in a heavy album release. I have made no friends with my disdain for sloppily mixed, performed and designed thrash metal albums in recent years, but I also understand that is part of its appeal with its blatant 1980s worship. I have also made the claim that Ride the Lightning is my favourite Metallica album; the grittier version of Master of Puppets.

I bring all of this up because Supernaturals - Record One is a gritty album. The guitars all collapse in on one another many times throughout this release, no instance more noticeable than the almost ten minute "Painful Burns Smoke as the..." with its elongated instrumental outro. But I cannot help but get sucked into its universe by the way in which this duo reaches that point. The slow building on "Maestoso" encapsulates the feeling of being brought back down to earth after a trip infused with hallucinogens. And as the ending slowly builds up a chugging guitar and percussion groove, the song ends and enters immediately into "The Overload", a return back to the bliss of post-metal texture, and sludgy grooves. 

I also think that is worth mentioning how progressive this record is. Post-Metal of the sludgy variety does tend to get locked up in its own texture and atmosphere after a while. But Ufomammut and Lento move the sound in a number of different directions and locations throughout the record six tracks. "Painful Burns Smoke as the..." uses microtonality for its main melodic hook. The thickness of the bass that swamps the guitar on "Infect Two", the minimal vocals allowing the leitmotifs to take center stage, the bridge of "Maestoso" as direction instead of interlude. The arc of this record is splendid and not experimented with enough in the mainstream post-metal universe.

I think what it all boils down to is that heavy metal is a complicated genre. It is supposed to be grimy and uncomfortable, but many modern acts are unwilling to make the adjustments necessary to make it worthwhile. Supernaturals - Record One is an example of a record that gets that. It sticks in your head after its conclusion for its melody, texture, groove, concept. And the way this duo can pull it off without compromising the metal "edge" is commendable. 

9/10

P.S. This record has an alarming amount of resonance without hallucinogens so I decided to bump my original score up one point. I can see this ending up in the same category as Light of Day, Day of Darkness in the future.