YOB - The Unreal Never Lived (2005)^{Release ID: 5220}

Yob are another outfit hailing from the fruitful US doom scene based around Eugene and Portland in Oregon and are centred around vocalist / guitarist (and founder) Mike Scheidt. Their sound is super heavy, sludgy stoner doom with extended jams that mesmerise and hypnotise then crush the listener like a reticulated python, before swallowing them whole.
2005's The Unreal Never Lived, the band's fourth album, spreads it's four tracks over 51 minutes and with the shortest being almost ten minutes they allow the songs to grow and mutate without ever deviating from the fundamental heaviness that makes them what they are. The lyrics are chiefly concerned with spiritual philosophy and the human psyche, typical stoner-related ponderings, although delivered quite aggressively considering the themes.
Musically, opener Quantum Mystic kicks off like a super-heavy version of Pink Floyd's One of These Days before morphing into what seems like Peace Sells... era Megadeth kicking out a doom metal jam. Grasping Air is a slower, more creeping affair, befitting the negativity of it's lyrical theme and Kosmos is a thundering starkiller of a song. The album culminates in the 21 minute monster that is The Mental Tyrant, a track that starts from steady, humble beginnings and evolves into a heaving beast, climaxing with a massive thrashy, sludge riff before fading away with a very weird chanted epilogue.
Whilst being somewhat ambivalent towards Yob's earlier output, I've got to confess to loving this album, far and away their best as far as I'm concerned and one of the best examples of stoner doom out there. An album for those who think Electric Wizard are pussies!