Well, here we are with another Southern Lord release and so you know one thing even before you hear a single second of it: it’s fucking heavy. Oh dear, is it heavy. And it’s entitled The Unkindness of Crows by a band named Eagle Twin. There probably are melodies to be found within the collection of songs here, but finding them really isn’t the point. Most likely, you couldn’t find them even if you wanted to, as they lie (if they are indeed there) beneath a titanium wall of sound. For example, the appropriately titled ‘Murder Of”¦’ features vocalist Gentry Densly’s guitar sounding like a slaughtered deer over the mammoth-size rumbling drumming of Tyler Smith.The most obvious (though not the most accurate) comparison to ET is labelmates Sunn O))). While they’re both drenched in droning reverb, the former writes what could be considered “normal songs” that feature genuine song structures as well as actual vocals (!) while the former just plays”¦music. That’s not a stab at Sunn O))), they’re just different bands. Plus, ET’s songs are easier to digest: Crows has seven songs lasting an hour (with three being only six minutes a piece) as opposed to, say, four.But ET doesn’t just play slow and loud. The aforementioned ‘Murder’ lasts 12 minutes and find the duo painting a story just with music: from full on doom metal shrieking in the middle of a highway to swerving into a ditch and passing out, to waking up with a giant headache, to wandering around in the forest in the middle of the night, to being chased by an otherworldly entity. ET writes more than songs, it writes journeys. ‘Birds of Hot Black Fire’ gets, um, funky right around its middle section. Densly’s guitar randomly decides that it wants to take flight and circles Smith as if waiting for him to finally die so he can become dinner. Similarly, ‘Crown Hymn’ goes from being a chugging steamroller to a motorcycle chase in mere minutes, with the dual-tracked guitars becoming screeching tires. Minutes later, Densly and Smith come together to paint a picture of a crash where we find both bikes on their sides, engines still running, smoke billowing and tires spinning. But that’s not the end of the story: the final portion suggests that both riders got up and began the chase again. They fade into the darkness as the aural narrative comes to a close. Did one catch up to the other? The listener is left to decide.Densly’s vocals can’t be ignored, either. ‘Storytelling of Ravens’ finds him delivering the lyrics as if he were conjuring up a demon. You can’t help but picture him performing with his eyes rolled back into his head. Densly bellows throughout ‘In the Beginning Was the Scream,’ while ‘And It Came to Pass that Birds Rain Down As Black Snakes’ finds him sounding possessed. The only real singing to be found is during ‘Carry On King of Carrion’ wherein Densly does his best Lemmy Kilmister impression. Even his singing is heavy. Damn.A band can’t just make a heavy record and expect that the heaviness alone will prove its worth. There has be a point, a place for the songwriting to go. Eagle Twin, of course, argues this case as well as any band within the Doom Metal community with this epic yet surprisingly intelligent disc. So it is with great esteem that we welcome it into the fold alongside legends like Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard and Candlemass. Drone on.

Eagle Twin on Myspace