Few styles can encapsulate a raw, uncompromising presence the likes of which cannot be deemed as anything less than viciously crushing like when the worlds of doom and sludge metal come together for a proper performance that we can really lose ourselves in. When it’s especially heavy with the skies blackening for the very arrival of such a creation, there is nothing else in the world that can truly compare with the bands that bring forth such magnificence on a level that quickly and rightfully earns cult status. Having set the table for further offensives over the last few years, 71TONMAN has been an up-and-coming name that has been devastating whenever it has surfaced, and it’s with this fresh offering that we’re able to get further insight into the apocalyptic power that’s at play here.
Outside the style we’re dealing with here, it’s hard to make your presence known in four tracks with only exceptional acts able to make it interesting or viable for any release that can capture a listener’s attention, but when we’re considering doom and sludge then that isn’t an issue whatsoever given that can easily result in an effort that’s but four tracks and well over a half-hour long. For 71TONMAN in their fourth offering, “Of End Times”, we see that runtime clock in mere seconds under forty minutes to make these four tracks nothing to underestimate whatsoever without even taking into consideration the focused power that this quintet boasts in absolute heaps. It’s here that we’re able to bear witness to the fruits of the labors of 71TONMAN as it’s clear in not even two years they’ve only sharpened their knives meant for naught but carving flesh right off the bone to make their already ferocious sound all the more punishing in damn near every aspect. Not a single moment of what’s to be found within “Of End Times” can be deemed as merciful in any potential form as we’re able to see the terrible craft of 71TONMAN effortlessly come in different forms be it earth-shattering riffage, drawn-out rhythms that herald forth the very falling of the sky, or the snuffing out of feeble life as far as the miserable eye can see with nothing being left alive such that the only thing left upon this world in this vast void is but one with the great oblivion that is this existence. This is what happens when sludge and doom come together for a performance that’s nothing short of cataclysmic even when it pulls back, and 71TONMAN is an exceedingly perfect vessel to bring forth such raw devastation.
Patience has long been a virtue in this style, and bands like 71TONMAN are simply the icing on that vicious cake as we can continuously see what’s still possible in the sound with the mere addition of new blood that is utterly ravenous for suffering on a scale that is terrifying for the mind to conceive. There is so much power and domination within the very fibers of “Of End Times” that it leaves one absolutely rooted in place such that you become a slave to the very power that 71TONMAN wields with terrifying capacity with the ending of the record feeling like a death sentence, leaving you to scramble to submerge yourself once more in their apocalypse for that is the only solace your mind can find even if it leads you to your awful demise.
“Of End Times” releases on March 3rd via Transcending Obscurity Records!
LISTEN to advanced tracks from “Of End Times” on Bandcamp here.
LIKE 71TONMAN on Facebook here.
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