ALBUM REVIEW: Of End Times – 71TonMan
It feels like 71TONMAN might be selling themselves short here. A quick Google suggests that 71 tonnes is roughly the weight of a space shuttle, which is a lot of course, but listening to their latest effort Of End Times these guys really feel like they could go for a whole star, or a galaxy even. The Polish sludge/doom dealers’ Facebook tagline is “Fat low and slow”, and the band have stayed very true to that as they follow their 2021 EP War Is Peace // Peace Is Slavery with their third full-length and second effort for the supremely consistent Transcending Obscurity Records.
A helpful comparison for some here would be to last year’s release from the band’s labelmates MORBID EVILS, as much like that record Of End Times comes in four roughly evenly cut chunks of deathy doomy sludge piled one on top of the other to block out any and all semblance of light. Fittingly, the tracks take their names from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, although the fourth and most famous rider of Death appears to have been replaced by Plague, which is usually used somewhat synonymously with the first rider of Conquest. Revelation-related pedantics aside however, the metaphor works well; each track is linked to the next through feedback and noise, these moments evoking something of a quiet, smouldering misery between the waves of utter devastation wrought by each of the horsemen.
One of the most crucial things that the band nail here is that even though all the tracks are obviously long, none of them really feel like a slog. Gruelling, yes, but not boring or meandering. Sticking to four is a good call especially, as a fifth would not only have spoiled the whole horsemen thing but would probably be asking a little too much of all but the most devoted sludge and doom fans. Instead, Of End Times unfurls with a hypnotic, trance-inducing power, its slow and steady grooves and tar-thick guitar and bass tones sucking listeners deep into a void where time seems to move differently. It’s a deeply satisfying effect – though not uncommon to the genre at hand – that helps bookmark this album as one to come back to whenever you fancy getting lost in something bleak and desolate.
What could take this album from good to great however is a little more variation. Aside from the quieter links between tracks, 71TONMAN rarely pause their sludgy onslaught once they’ve got it started, and, in staying true to the ‘slow’ part of their motto, they don’t often mess with the tempo either. This does mean that one could probably accuse Of End Times of becoming a little predictable, and while that no doubt serves the album’s aforementioned hypnotic power very well, there is no immediately apparent reason to think the band would lose this were they to push the boat out even just a couple more times than they do here.
Maybe that is an unfair ask of 71TONMAN though. Of End Times carries an apocalyptic weight that feels perfectly matched to the themes at hand, and a large part of its appeal lies in its power to induce an almost catatonic state in its listener. You might hear more ambitious sludge and doom records this year, but good luck finding many that capture either genres’ common obsession with ‘end times’ quite as resolutely as this.
Rating: 7/10
Of End Times is set for release on March 3rd via Transcending Obscurity Records.
Like 71TONMAN on Facebook.