#gidrah

Doomed & Stoned – PDX: The New Blood

In the last episode of The Doomed & Stoned Podcast, we looked as recent releases by familiar bands from my own backyard of Portland, Oregon. In this second episode of the New Year we’re digging even deeper. Here we sample music music from the new blood of the Rose City Originally aired on Grip of Delusion Radio on Sunday, February 5th, 2017.

Portland doom heroes Gidrah have just released a new recording, a split with fellow smog filled lurchers Urchin. Unfortunately only Gidrah’s side of the split is currently available online, so I’m not able to get a full picture of the release. But I absolutely loved Gidrah’s side of the release, a powerful fifteen minutes of all encompassing darkness and cold. The tape opens with “Unending”, a twisting behemoth of disdain and hate, combining powerful guitar grooves with howling, hellish vocals. The vocals on these songs really stand out. They feel like a deeply personal, primal scream, and coupled with Gidrah’s ever evolving instrumentals they add an edge of nihilistic blackness that most doom oriented bands cannot match. While Gidrah is on the surface a very classic doom metal band, little details like that add dimensions to their sound that recall black metal or even drone bands like the almighty Sunn. The drone element of Gidrah’s music is no more evident than on the closing track of this piece, the beautifully composed instrumental song “Overcast”, which brings the level of dread in Gidrah’s sound to its peak.

I’ve written on Gidrah in the past, and what I’ve said before about them becomes more true each time they put something new out. Gidrah are an ever evolving band, changing and fine tuning their sound to become more intricate and different with each recording they put out. They are not content with simply being a stoner or doom metal band, instead they build on that idea and create a sound that is uniquely theirs. And that is the kind of attitude and creativity I think all artists, no matter what medium they choose, should strive for.

Gidrah is currently touring the Pacific Northwest. Their split with Urchin can be found here:

Gidrah are a crushingly heavy four piece sludge metal band from Portland, Oregon. Their latest release, the Fire Sludgetape demo, is a rumbling, amorphous mass of sound, swallowing the leader up in its toothy jaws. I reviewed the band’s first official release, From The Deepest Depths back in April, but the band has evolved greatly over these few months. Gidrah has moved passed their more traditional stoner metal roots and added a sludgier, darker edge to their music. However, this definitely does not mean they have renounced doom metal: The demo’s closing track, “Maleguenia”, is six minutes, fifty seconds of smokey, trailing riffs that surround the listener like a foreboding fog. Gidrah are a band of excellent chemistry, with a balanced combination of musical technicality and vision. Fire Sludgetape serves as merely a preview for what I’m sure is a future of grimy riffing and busted eardrums.

Gidrah’s next show is August 17th at the Bloodshed with Saola, Entoxikutioner, Ape Cave, and Static Altars. They are also touring the PNW from September 14th to the 18th.

Fire Sludgetape 2K16 and Gidrah’s other releases can be found here: