SEVERED BOY - Tragic Encounters
October 2, 2021, 3 years ago
(Caligari)
Two-piece death/doom band Severed Boy show promise on this debut EP, these five songs delivered with enough intensity and passion to prove that a full-length could be a killer. But there's a way to go yet: while songs like the excellent “Pooling” show a good grasp of songwriting dynamics as well as the ability to navigate both death and sludgey doom, I'm left wanting a bit more.
And what I want is some more cracks around the edges, a production sound that's a bit more craggly, the band to sound a bit wearier. Death/doom is so much about atmosphere, and while Severed Boy hit that at points here, at other times things feel a bit too clean. But then a song like “Sparse Forest Of Memories” comes along and knocks me off my feet, and the vibe is more very-early Paradise Lost than it is Autopsy and things start to make a bit more sense. Closer “Mindless Future Breaker” (awesome title) is great, maybe the best track here, as the band plods forth like a monolith.
I'm just left feeling like Severed Boy needs to take a plunge into the sewers, into the filth, and really own their death/doom next time, and I have no doubt they'll emerge with a putrescent victory.
