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THE CROOKED WHISPERS
Funeral Blues

Ripple Music (2023)
Rating: 8/10

As its title suggests, the new full-length album from American-Argentinian combo The Crooked Whispers arrives with extra bluesy lethargy, but the cult continues its esoteric worshipping of the psych / doom gods. Obviously Black Sabbath and Death SS spring to mind, but there are nods towards Burning Witch too as this riff monster of a record rolls like a leathery leviathan toiling in the depths of the River Styx.

Fuzz, sludge and satanic doom are the main ingredients here; at times oh so simple and also familiar due to influences, but this behemoth slays with its witchery and devilish designs. Opener ‘Suicide Castle’ lumbers infectiously before those shrill, snappy vocal yaps slither from the catacomb cracks. In a sense such nasty slurping are what sets the band apart with stark yet sneering narrations squirming through the fat, blubbery liquid of the rivers of riffs.

Eight courses are dished up in this haunted dining room where a sinister butler leers from the shadows, his face illuminated yet distorted by the flickering candles. The Crooked Whispers create a stuffy, gothic atmosphere dripping with images of token table séances, disfigured candelabras, chiming grandfather clocks and creaking passages.

‘Stay In Hell’ creeps like a spindly Nosferatu tip toeing the halls, the vocals are ominous to say the least before the scowling title track takes hold. Just like Uncle Acid, The Crooked Whispers have found somewhat of a niche in spite of treading, like many before them, on the toes of Sabbath.

This style of satanic doom feels blacker, stuffier and has more in common with the unorthodox chimes of the Italian scene. No pace is ever applied to the crawl of this band but there are still varying levels of slowness when one compares a track like ‘Crippled Shadow’ to ‘Deathmaker’, although with each passing chunk of evil doom there is another pitch black road to navigate. ‘Bed Of Bones’ is downright fiendish in its trudging, while ‘Pleasant Death’ is harsher in its vocal scrapes where again there is that Burning Witch abrasive sluggishness and sludge.

With Funeral Blues The Crooked Whispers have remained tight and heavy in its satanic trudging and yet they continue to progress within their sinister framework. This is metal for the blackest of basements and the dustiest of attics.

Neil Arnold

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