Their incessant dirges on the deep-sea margins generate a restless fuss, encasing the scraped clean carapace and skeletal detritus of perished victims who’d encountered the hunger of what dwelt within the waters with a reeking, mounding foam of red-and-blue digestion. Lumbering out at night, shapeless wanderers coughing fumes like panting hounds in moonlight Melbourne, Australia-based psychedelic/stoner doom metal trio Oceanlord are driven by a nightside hunger for tales of tragedian horror which free the mind from the hum-drum beating of a contained and contaminated modern existence. On their debut full-length album, ‘Kingdom Cold‘ they find themselves out at sea, appropriately enough, bravely floating atop a watery tomb of unknowable depth where both tumult and bleak emptiness are met with the constantly whirring nausea inherent to existence. Finding a modern yet classically tipped point of interest between heaviest psychedelic doom metal’s bad trip and some manner of accessible multi-generationally adaptive songcraft these folks manage an already remarkably well-characterized and tuneful starting point on this uncertain, downtrodden voyage.

Oceanlord formed as a trio in 2019 between bassist Jason Ker and vocalist/guitarist Peter Willmott who’d found a common purpose in not-so traditional doom metal despite their own passions in heavy music being slightly different, it’d seem to suit the distraught mood their collaboration naturally generated. They’d eventually add drummer Jon May and get to work on an impressive two song demo (‘Demo‘, 2020) which’d immediately suggested some professional level of craft and a unique style that was rooted in 80’s doom metal and its more extreme pacing and stonier swing in the 90’s. It wasn’t the sort of release you’d have connected with for any sort of retro or niche specific choice but moreso for the copacetic personality they’d achieved in such a short period of time, already suggesting a signature that crossed with ease between eerie stoner/doom metal, sludgier toned rhythms, the dreamlike vision questing of psychedelic doom and a vocalist who could make it all work in captivating narrative. Both of those songs were solid enough to feature as reworked standouts on ‘Kingdom Cold’, a testament for the group basically getting it right from the outset.

Though the buzz of stoner metal music is undeniably there in Oceanlord‘s sound it is not at all the whole story nor is their nature free-wheeling and delivered with such ease. Their approach just as often threatens to lean into the realm of the more slinking, sombre psychedelia of Windhand and circa ‘Created in the Image of Suffering‘ King Woman with its fuzzier tones and effects-riveted drift but the effect is steadier, sleepier and bleak as we crack into opener “Kingdom“, its fuzzed bassline giving a clear notion of style as the song bounds into frame. For a moment the album enjoys a briefly familiar lucidity which stoner-sided psychedelic doom metal fans will appreciate off the bat but, we are still a few minutes from our first notion of the bigger picture. In fact what truly characterizes and decategorizes the trio’s sound from the usual desert-bound doom comes by way of Willmott‘s voice which tends to find uniquely set placement and timbre, a very controlled and finessed register which never cracks under the pressurized depth of their sound design (handled by Monolord‘s Esben Williams). The best comparison for the mood the fellow strikes which I could come up with was ‘Mother Teacher Destroyer‘ from The Hidden Hand, a record which tempers itself to a similarly slow and glowing pace but finds its Sabbathian stoner side of the fence within its songcraft, a subtle performance when a gashed open soul is almost expected. This not exactly deadpan state is typically rooted in exposition rather than self-revelation, or, any purely personal intimacy beyond depressive lilt. “Isle of the Dead” is the exact right vehicle for this ominous nip at the heels in this sense, certainly a doom metal song where the tradition is felt yet achieved in an unexpectedly dismal yet accessible mode.

Where the dead lie dreaming… — The effect of said vocal warmth at-a-distance upon the sound of the band isn’t as fragile in its juxtaposition of power with wilting spirits as something like Warning, nor is it as serious in its exaggerated self-evisceration as the bands they’ve influenced (early Pallbearer, The Temple, et al.) but their tonal reach is similarly intense in its contemplative station. Slowly and steadily processing the dread of ‘Kingdom Cold‘ we find an almost folken singer-songwriter verve in its intimacy and at times poetic phrase. “2340“, a piece which references the calm before the ship goes down per the story of the Titanic, is perfectly suited for a bit of soulful and bluesy trudging rhythm while the resignation of the vocal performance wears its lyric arrangement as a beautiful centerpiece for what potential this debut realizes beyond the simple appeal of Oceanlord‘s demo. These moments don’t necessarily break from the tradition of gloomy, depressive stoner doom balladry but they do feel intimate on a different level, a voice which is seeking some manner of salvation within their presentation of a tragic scene. The best example where this all comes together and impresses from my point of view is within the dreary setup of “Siren” as it gives way to the cooling relief of drowned captivity in its final third, the sensation of release from the tension of the song’s build and its movements have a strangely post-rock feeling when zoomed out to pure structure for effect.

The best way to sum my appreciation for ‘Kingdom Cold‘ still won’t manage to be succinct as their appeal comes in many layers beyond its broadly appealing pull from stoner, psychedelic, and traditional doom metal taste unto their own voice. Oceanlord bring an appreciably gloom-stricken and Lovecraftian ode to the unknowable horrors which surround us which crucially delivers more than a sound, more than just style points but also some deeply memorable and pensive songcraft which’ll stick best within a miserable skull in need of a proper dreadful shanty. A high recommendation.

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