I’ve become aware of a trend towards sabbathy, melodic,
heavy stoner-doom bands with female singers lately. Had the stoner-doom
scene not always been so utterly male-dominated, I might not have noticed… but,
you know, it was.
As such, it’s impossible not to take note of the recent
emergence of bands like Windhand, Ruby the Hatchet, and Holy Grove, all of whom
are female-fronted, and all of whom fucking slay.
Holy Grove brings something interesting to the table, in
that the tones are thick and sludgy, while the riffs shift back and forth from
contemporary doominess to almost classic rock-esque at times.
Recorded by Billy Anderson, this actually doesn’t feel like
a Billy Anderson record – and by that I mean he didn’t do that thing that
wrings a Melvin-esque sound out of every band he works with. Maybe it’s
been a while since I listened to Billy’s work, or maybe he took a gentler
approach with someone who clearly has their own vibe and didn’t necessarily
need that Anderson
crunch to sound thick and heavy on tape.
The vocal question, to me, has the potential to be pretty
polarizing: would this record and band sound as good with a male vocalist?
In other words, should it be worth mentioning the vocals for their female
distinctiveness?
I guess it depends where you stand on the whole political
correctness issue. I mean, we agree that we have a black president, right?
We don’t have to tiptoe around that? So then, we can agree to discuss the
merits of the vocals in gender-free terms while acknowledging that it’s indeed
a woman belting them out. Agreed?
I like what she’s doing. It’s not the elastic operatic
thing that some female metal singers do, nor is it the breathy, Mazzy
Star-possessed by demons thing. She’s just letting it rip, God of Rock
style. Or, Goddess of Rock, I mean. Whatever. It works.
It rocks.
If you like your Windhand a little less graveyardy, your
Ruby the Hatchet a bit more seismic, and your stoner rock a few ounces less
testosterone-fueled… or you just want to hear a quality fucking stoner-doom
record, then check out Holy Grove’s debut full-length. Available now here.
— MeteorJadd
Comments