ALBUM REVIEW: Quest For Oblivion – Sun Crow

Seattle’s doom-blues revelation, SUN CROW are set to release physical copies of their acclaimed debut release, Quest For Oblivion, this summer. It’s certainly not an album which breaks many boundaries, but if it’s gnarly, blues-fuelled stoner doom with a tinge of scratchy witch-metal you’re after, then look no further than this release.

A healthy length more epic and fully realised than many of its contemporaries, Quest For Oblivion sticks to the rule book for the most part. Thick riffs, slow tempos and an abundance of headbanging characterise the album’s runtime. We open with the colossal-sounding Collapse, its slow tempo marking what becomes the norm on this release. Discordant guitars swirl lazily over the top of the mix, pushing the song that little bit further past  the conventions of the genre. End Over End breaks free from conventional song structure to provide an odyssey of a track, featuring inventive drum fills, hypnotic guitar solos and a ramping up of tension to make the eleven minutes fly by.

This kind of huge, heavy sound is reminiscent of bands like BIG|BRAVE and of course, the almighty SLEEP, but the album manages to, at points, push itself further than your average doom band. There are punk elements in songs such as Nothing Behind, and constant scratchy kind of textures added along the way – not exactly noise, but more abrasive than one might expect of this sort of album.

But it’s Charles Wilson’s vocals which really propel this band past being just another stoner doom collective. Massive belting occasionally gives way to blood-curdling screams which elevates the entire sound to be something much more primal, angular and downright scary. Wilson mysteriously left the project during the completion of the album, something which we look forward to seeing this band trying to overcome on their next release.

Stoner doom bands are a dime a dozen these days, but SUN CROW has really managed to stand out from the pack. Yes, it’s ‘just’ doom, but it’s good. It’s really good. It’s not doing much to further the genre, but it also doesn’t pretend to. Quest For Oblivion sets out to deliver fun riffs, huge sounds and more than a bit of an edge in some truly impressive vocal work from Wilson, and that’s exactly what it achieves.

Rating: 7/10

Quest For Oblivion is out now via Ripple Music.

Like SUN CROW on Facebook.