Altaar: music for melancholic minds

Altaar's self-titled album may be adding extra weight to the idea that doom metal is only a small step away from being lounge music for the leather jackets and beards brigade, but it is pretty darn good.

There's an exclusive stream of the album on the Invisible Oranges blog. You should check it out now.

Over two long-form pieces we get Dylan Carlson style instrumental metallic-folk blues - slow, stately and cool, man - punctuated by drones and steady-state wig-outs. 

At one point on the second track - Dei Absolutte Krav Og Den Absolute Nåde (they're Norwegian, don't you know) the singer wakes up from his reverie, goads the drummer into upping the tempo, and briefly gives it his best Joe Cocker goes black metal.

Spent, he collapses back into the narcotic/necrotic haze from whence he came. His cooler bandmates, mellow unharshed, return to carrying him in state across the monochrome terrain.

This is music made by melancholic minds, clipped of expectation, elegant and elegaic. I love it, and I'd do so without qualification were it not for the feeling that those responsible feel lost as the rest of us.