THE SLOW DEATH – Ark CD

Ark crawls along the bottom of humanity’s vast ocean of misery through six masterfully arranged tracks of Funeral Doom. The sense of dread is omnipresent, yet so is the dark, chilling beauty of compositions that are surprisingly varied. Whether the stunning contrast of Gregg Williamson’s cavernous growl to Mandy Andresen’s (MURKRAT) ghostly croon, the seamless movement between crushing riffs and melancholic picking, or the bleak, windswept keyboard soundscapes, the one certainty is that Ark is destined to be among 2015’s most celebrated Doom releases.