Herem - Pulsa diNura (2008)

 
 The appearence of a new stoner band is usually such an event that could be compared to when a drop of water falls into the sea. It's quite hard to fail in this style, groovy, bouncing riffings, decent amount of '70s influences and a gruff voiced frontman (who also can sing) is enough for the stoner soup. And the audience will love it. But these circumstances are kind of disadvantageous in case of the appearence of a genuine band, because they hardly can get wider attention.
   Herem played a bit more complex music, sludge/stoner/doom, and that only wouldn't be enough to change anything, but even though they showed mixed influences, their music was quite antinomic. The sound was enough heavy to fit to the style, and the themes compensed that by their chilling main effect. The '70s feeling is also there somewhere deep, available to puzzle together from the sound, repetitive themes and the lyrical references. Still the main impression is darker than it was usual in stoner/doom, but far not noisy enough for sludge. The lyrical concept also prefers the dark side, but without self-destruction overdose. The influence of bands like Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard or Kyuss is evident, but this is a different perspective somehow. Still the heaviest feature in their music that cannot save them to be marked as a sludge band is the growling female vocal that would also fit into death metal. And that's something that may count too much in sludge/stoner/doom. However, the band successfully created balance by this combination of aggressive vocal style - chilling music - dark impression, and therefore their music was extraordinary. Stongly recommended for the fans of the mentioned styles!