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Black Cobra--Feather and Stone

BloomDoom | 11/08/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I understand the potential At A Loss Records sees in Black Cobra (Jason Landrian, Rafael Martinez). These two men from San Francisco really put forth all effort into making yet another vigorous sludge album. Feather and Stone (2007), Black Cobra's most recent release and second full-length, certainly shows BC's expanding musicianship and intensity.

The abundance of heavy riffs, abrasive drums and Landrian's harsh vocals creates a continuum of gut-wrenching, instrumental sludge. With a hint of similarity to albums like Battlefields' Stained with the Blood of an Empire and Baroness' First or Second, Feather and Stone provides favorable qualities of that atypical doom guru.

But not limiting itself to a "conventional" format of sludge doom, BC branches off with its supply of desolate interludes. Delicately placed before the crashing full-on collision an erosive explosion of guitars and drums, these short recesses are noteworthy. Compared to BC's previous release, such as Bestial (2006), Feather and Stone still focuses on familiar explosive guitar and drum work. This experimental quality of BC brands it as a more recent branch of sludge that many well-established artists and listeners resent.

Regardless of its new modernist approach to the genre, BC progresses its intensity and identity among the doom culture. I personally enjoy watching young bands like BC nakedly open themselves to all types of listeners.



--JBlumensheid"