Kev Rowland I live in New Zealand, a country with incredible landscapes and wonderful people, which in terms of geothermic activity is also fairly active. All kiwis enjoy going to the multiple places where it is possible to swim in thermally heated water or have been to Hot Water Beach and dug spa pools in the sand, and when it comes to earthquakes, we all think we’re experts. Since moving to Aotearoa in 2006 there have been three major quakes, two of which caused loss of life, but generally when we feel a quake we have discussions as to how big it was and how far away, and then all check the GeoNet app on our phones to see how close we were. Why do I mention this? It’s just because I am sure the tectonic plates often move more quickly than these guys. Slow by name, slow by nature, this is funeral doom where Déhà can strike a chord, and while the strings are still resonating he can go to the bar, order a drink, and still have plenty of time to strike the next one. On top of that, this atmospheric music is unbelievably heavy yet although we can all feel the weight of the music all around is, it is somehow never unbearably oppressive.

For many years Slow were just Déhà (all instruments), and this is the first album where someone else has been involved, Lore (lyrics, concepts, bass, vocals (backing), arrangements). Between them they have created something which is majestic, all-encompassing, doom which has also contains huge elements of atmospheric black metal as if Burzum and Sabbath have gone somewhere and recorded at quarter speed. That somewhere had to be a cave in Scandinavia, in the winter, music like this has no business at all coming out of Belgium. Play this to the powers that be in Brussels and the EU would collapse like the house of cards it undoubtedly is.

Any slower and this band would be going backwards, any heavier and the music would never get up off the floor. Perfect music to listen to in the dark of the night, outside with headphones on, looking up at the stars with a drink in hand. Majestic.

Kev Rowland This album was originally released in 2015, then it was followed up by an ambient version in 2016. A new album was released in 2017, also independently, and they have now signed to Code666 and re-released their fourth album yet again. However, due to various reasons they had to re-record various parts, and then it was remixed, so for the third time in four years we are faced yet again with a new version of the same album. I don’t think I have come across a situation quite like this before, but here we are. I find it interesting when reading either the press release or reviews of this album, as they are described as atmospheric funeral doom, yet I can quite easily imagine someone who hasn’t read those saying that this album is mostly black metal. I have read a review where they state that singer Deha’s vocals are as doom as anything they have ever heard. To my poor abused ears, they are black metal, or possibly blackened death metal, as opposed to doom, which just goes to show how music is subjective to the listener and many bands just refuse to fit into whatever neat boxes we want to put them in.

Putting the whole of the last paragraph to one side, here is a band who live up to their name and produce some of the slowest music one can imagine. This is ambient, atmospheric, bleak and compelling. In some ways they remind me of Rakoth, in others Negură Bunget, while Burzum is also something they have obviously been paying attention to, all of it slowed down so that if they played at a lower tempo they would actually be going backwards. This is not music which could ever be played in the background or when something else happens, as if the listener does that then this will just blend into the ambient sounds around them and they will just stop hearing it altogether. It needs to be listened to in the dark of night, with no lights visible (although a distant candle might be nice), glass of red wine (an Otago Pinot Noir would work well) to hand, and just fall into the dark and rather threatening world of the Belgians. Worthy of close attention indeed.