review: Lost Orb

Lost Orb

Low Ebb's Lament

Giganto Records

20 September 2019

This is 17 minutes of mostly instrumental doom: guitar and drums. The objective seems to be the search for sublime doom. It’s not about heaviness, or trying to be super slow or anything like this that would be considered a doom-oriented genre goal, like trying to prove something.

There are basically no vocals here, except for some sparse angelic “oohs” and “aaahs” to make the listener imagine something beautiful, whatever that might be (the mountains, the stars, heaven, New Jersey, meditation).

It feels repetitive and circular because it is doom and it is slow, but for doom fans that is normal. However, in the 17 minutes there are passages of clean or acoustic guitar that is completely different from the parts of heavy doom, and with the vocals, as described above, shows serene segments that contrast really well with the doom.

The guitar tone is heavy, but with less fuzz than people assume for doom guitar. The riffs are big and they move at midtempo, not the super duper slow motion.

Given that there are no lyrics, the music allows the drums to be heard well. The recording’s sound is rather clear and pleasant to the ear. It is also short enough that even people who are not big fans of doom might feel in the mood to hear a more accessible, cleaner and simpler take on doom.

gigantorecords.bandcamp.com/album/low-ebbs-lament