From The Vault: Winter

When people think about New York music, two images come to mind. One is the x'ed up, aggressive sound of New York Hardcore, and the other is the freak, literary-steeped coolness of art rock. It's a shame, because the New York metal scene produced some of the heaviest music ever put to tape. SUFFOCATION is the most well known metal export, but BRUTAL TRUTH, S.O.D, LIFE OF AGONY, TYPE O NEGATIVE, and THE STIMULATORS put out great music.

On In Darkness,WINTER that took the darkness and claustrophobia present in great New York music and cranked it up to eleven. This album is slow, painfully slow death/doom with a haunting, bleak atmosphere.  It sounds like a wounded animal crawling through black treacle, trying to get to safety but slowly bleeding out.

Every track has the same pace and atmosphere, which is something I would normally decry as boring but with this album it just adds to the sadness. WINTER is named after an AMEBIX track, and they live up to the former's grim aesthetic. The negativity is heightened because it feels realistic. There is no occult-leanings, no morbid tales of murder and sexual deviancy, just the endless sadness that is always present in life.

The album was very underground for a while, but was eventually reissued by NUCLEAR BLAST on CD and by SOUTHERN LORD on Vinyl.

Pick it up, but be warned that you are in for a harrowing listen.