OneMetal.com music REVIEW:
Conan & Slomatics – Conan Vs Slomatics

Two bands, one EP, three tracks each, FIGHT!
Well, I say ‘fight’. Given the tones crawling from this particular slab of wax, I reckon you’d be lucky to see much in the way of movement at all from either band save a lazily-flicked spliff and the odd bout of barely-awake coughing. Yes folks, this is dooooooooooooom of the most grandiose and lengthy kind.

Liverpudlian three piece Conan kick off their contribution with ‘Retaliator’, six or so minutes of psychedelic chug and drone lent an extra trippy edge by the dual-vocal stylings. Segueing through the atmospheric instrumental and effected vocals of Mr Dave Anderson (Hawkwind, Amon Duul II) on ‘Obsidian Sword’, Conan give us their true intent with their final offering ‘Older Than Earth’. Calling on Sleep and Yob for inspiration, the band drag us through eleven minutes of the murkiest, dankest fug possible. Seriously kids, this stuff is quite capable of giving you nightmares – imagine, if you will, the musical result of giving Tom G Warrior 20mg of Valium and making him watch you kick his cat around his lounge. Yep, ‘Older Than Earth’ is a dark trip indeed – relentless, grim (in the true, non-corpsepaint/church-burning sense), and thick with fuzzed-out repetition and creeping menace. Wondrously disturbing stuff, more please!

Moving onto Slomatics from Northern Ireland, their three tracks have a more even spread of time between them, all weighing-in at around six minutes each. Their sphere of operations turns a tad faster than their vinyl-mates, but with an equally morose feel. ‘Lose The Five’ displays more of a Melvins edge than Conan possess, but that can’t possibly be a bad thing, right? Swirling reverb-drenched vocals give way to nasal descending guitar harmonies and cowbells usher in rise-and-fall chord sequences that King Buzzo himself would rejoice in slashing our ears with. The only issue I take with Slomatics is that all three tracks kind of blend into one, due to their similar structure. Being totally fair, ‘Mont Ventoux’ has some truly bowel-loosening riffing but still, despite its slower pace, fails to really distinguish itself from the other two tracks on here. I’m not hating on them though – I’d certainly like to hear more of their stuff, as I suspect that this format might constrict them slightly and an album may be the best way to get to grips with the Slomatics particular brand of sludge.

Now comes the sore part – this release is going to be very limited indeed, as only 300 copies are being pressed. If you want one, you’ll have to move pretty quickly and be prepared to shell out for the privilege – at £16 a pop, only you can really decide if it’s one for your collection. It all sounds great though, courtesy of a dense and organic recording job from Chris Fielding at Foel Studios, and the mastering by James Plotkin (Khanate) adds a definite ‘gimme’ factor for the completists among us. Sky-blue vinyl makes it pretty tempting too, I must admit!

Conan’s MySpace MySpace link
Slomatics MySpace MySpace link
Label Website Head Of Crom online

Bottom Line

Not cheap, admittedly, but destined to be somewhat of a collector's piece I suspect. A solid slab of filthy doom all round, Conan's side is the one I'd pick in this particular conflict.