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BOTTOMLESS
The Banishing

Dying Victims Productions (2023)
Rating: 8.5/10

Italian trio Bottomless sit hand in hand around an oaken table and by the dim light of flickering candle conducts a séance to conjure the dark spirits of Pentagram and The Obsessed. The result is a manifestation – the second from the band – which rumbles to its own simplistic thunderclap riffs and bleak yet booming vocal commands.

This is classic vintage doom metal of yellowed pages, creaking coffin lids and damp vapours; a place where one can find comfort in the smell of rain and black leather. Constructed here are eight headstones, mostly sunken but to stand the test of time. They leer, as pallid faces, towards the sombre churchyard bell and in timely, yet haunting fashion chime like an old grandfather clock consigned to the dusty attic.

Opening tome ‘Let Them Burn’ trudges like Black Sabbath before snowballing into Saint Vitus, Pentagram et al. as Giorgio Trombino’s slick, black riffs slither to the sound of his equally menacing voice. The trio creates stark and brooding rolls bolstered by the stony bass of Sara Bianchin and the equally morose whacks of drummer David Lucido.

This is the sort of traditional doom metal you thought had been exhausted, but no, just like every humid storm, every crumbling castle, and every crow caw, there is an element of comfort. Each track brings its own steady, rhythmic pulse whether in the form of the lethargic slog of ‘The Great Unknown’ and ‘Illusion Sun’ to the bewitching throb of the mesmeric ‘By The Sword Of The Archangel’ and to the psych-fused bluesy fuzz of ‘Dark Waters’.

The Banishing is a massive sounding opus strengthened by its own thick, black bones which enable a colossal track like ‘Guardians Of Silence’ to exist like some thawed mammoth taking to the snow-capped ridges once again.

There is nothing fancy here, just aching, yawning macabre forces of doom that embrace you as great coils and drag you down into the wet soil and to the core of the Earth. At times there is no better place to be than in the bottomless pit of the black hole known as Bottomless.

Neil Arnold

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