Subterraen – Rotten Human Kingdom [Full Length, 2020]

French Sludge/Doom Metal unit, Subterraen recently released their debut full length ‘Rotten Human Kingdom’ on 20 November 2020 via Transcending Obscurity Records. 

Oh boy, what a treat, especially you’re enjoying an album with lumbering pace. The thick, sludgy, rumbling low end register of the guitars and bass, with drums feels like a truck scaling a mountain and anguish screams furnishing the tracks.Such powerful sound would only enforce massive, towering vibe they’re striving for, tenfold. I would say the atmopshere and build ups are pretty threatening and paints the scenario of us heading to certain doom. True to Sludge/Doom Metal sound, the guitars feel like dragged through thick mud; abrasive and heavy but retain some degree of Groove Metal enough to let you breath. And this is the part of Subterraen I really like. It’s disorienting and uncomfortable to listen to.

While most of the tracks are stretched close to 15 minutes, I feel it’s appropriate in order to give them a proper progression. There’s no point of rushing anyway. It feels like a slow, unevitable death filled with misery and sadness. It’s negative, feels hopeless and angry. It doesn’t get any better than that for a Sludge/Doom Metal album. And I feel Subterraen hit the right formula, although this is not a groundbreaking work, it still worth to listen to. Give in to the void and drown in negativity today.

Rotten Human Kingdom is available now in CD, cassette and digital download format.

FFO: Eyehategod, Neurosis, Primitive Man, Jupiterian