Review by Sandre the Giant
Transcending Obscurity gave me my first taste of 71TonMan in 2021 when they released their ‘War is Peace/Peace is Slavery’ EP, and they have seen fit to grace us with the presence of these Polish sludge nihilists once more on their new record, ‘Of End Times’. If their previous work is anything to go by, that title is going to be very apt. It is out at the start of March.
‘Conquest’ is a churning behemoth, massive mossy riffs drag themselves from the darkness and powerful roars cascade over the top of them. A slow motion apocalypse, a knuckle dragging nihilistic avalanche, it is a magnificent statement of intent immediately. There’s times where the music is almost available to you, a groove that is catchy and memorable before it gets snatched away and you’re left to rot in the filthy thunder of ‘Plague’. There’s only four tracks but they cover about 10 minutes each so you aren’t getting short shrift. The way the tracks build is masterful too, almost post metal in their attention to dynamics. ‘War’ starts like Sleep but if they were into harder drugs; a hypnotic opium trip into nightmarish roiling riffs, abyssal roars and the kind of vast scope that is sometimes missing in sludge doom records. ‘Famine’ is a bulldozing, earth shaking closer, delving close to death/doom towards the end of this cavernous, tectonic collapse.
71TonMan remember a time when sludge was ugly, slow and just filled to the brim with poisonous fumes and negligence and hate, and I am here for it. ‘Of End Times’ is not here for groove, it isn’t here for wailing feedback or crusty punk influenced fast sludge. 71TonMan are here to destroy everything they touch with the weight of their apocalyptic dirges, and they succeed here to an astonishing degree. Incredible stuff.
https://www.facebook.com/71TonMan
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