Electrocution

New York City has either birthed or contributed to countless rock styles over the years — however, doom metal is not a genre often associated with the city that never sleeps. Unearthly Trance show that there are indeed Black Sabbath worshipers lurking in the city’s shadows, as evidenced by their 2008 offering, Electrocution. But unlike Sabbath’s early work that mixed plodding, evil-sounding, minor-key metal along with melodic and/or acoustic detours, Unearthly Trance ditch the melody in favor of brutality. Although musically comparable to the likes of Pentagram and Saint Vitus, vocally Unearthly Trance are almost entirely based on metallic screaming. Tracks such as the album-opening “Chaos Star,” “The Dust Will Never Settle,” and “The Scum Is in Orbit” fit this description, while “Diseased” is the closest the band gets to any kind of melodic territory. While Electrocution won’t be winning any awards for breaking new musical ground, it certainly shows that Unearthly Trance have earned their master’s degree in doom. – Greg Prato