Nashville’s own low-end amp-wall wizards Black Tar Prophet have been blowing out eardrums for around three years now. Their first record “Note to Nod” was independently released and features a single 40-minute track of minimalist doom riffage set to a smorgasbord of samples. This new full-length, “Deafen,” released by Domestic Genocide records, features a lineup that has been in effect since right after the first record. Then-guitarist Mark parted ways with the band, leaving drummer Greg Swinehart to move from drums to bass and recruit Erik D (the D supposedly stands for “Direbastard”) of Archdruid and later War Bong to take over on drums.
Together, this dysphoric duo makes some of the purest, most distilled crushfucking doom you will ever hear. These two have taken staple riffs similar to those crafted by Electric Wizard, Sleep and especially Bongripper and carved them down all the way to their elemental state. No vocals, no guitars and few if any samples this time around. No – literally this album is nothing but walls of holy feedback, the sweetest fucking doom riffs played on a bass and drums at the loudest volume possible. I’ve even heard that the vinyl record has no limiter and may fuck your speakers up.
So rip a bong and turn this up loud. Because once you get into their slug-pace grooves and start losing yourself in the hypnotic distortion, this is the kind of stuff that will make you lose all track of time and unable to think of anything at all due to the power of their riff worship.
