Show of Bedlam - Roont

SHOW OF BEDLAM - Roont
2012
Choking Hazards Records

I admit I didn't know about Show of Bedlam (SoB) before I saw this "Doom Night" poster, and went to see them live at Cafe Chaos in Montreal. Now, that was a surprise, the band deliver the goods and are probably one of the best doom acts I've seen live in the City that Never Sleeps.

Right off the bat, SoB isn't your typical type of doom (or classical doom). This is a noisy branch bred in pain, born into hardcore, and likely raised around a few crossover acts such as Earache's rosters of the 90's. If we were to try finding SoB's parents, we would probably find it somewhere between the social violence of Today is the Day and the dark personal journey of Rollins Band. One closer comparative could be the mighty Jucifer, with whom it seems that SoB shared a split earlier.

Roont is a full lenght divided into four long tracks, and an interlude. It is one whole uneasy atmosphere, opening up a personal nightmare. Beyond the doom music itself, this direction is crafted by the female touch of singer and frontwoman Paulina Richards, who also participated in the brilliant Masseter alternative project. Throughout her relatively long texts, she is dragging us into an inscape journey where we witness dark interpersonal situations, and find a few shady characters; something also explored by other female-fronted bands such as Otep, Doll, or Social Revolver. With Paulina's very specific tone of voice and variations, Roont is like a black and white vintage horror movie, with a touch of purple despair.

SoB is a four-piece band: vocal, guitar, bass and drum. The tempo of the album is relatively slow, like a hearbeat pounding in your head, alone in the dark of an empty basement, waiting for your captor. There are all sorts of noises, loops and synth effects added to the instruments mentioned above, thus offering a rich backdrop to Roont. The guitar sound is dirty, and the bass - deep down the spectrum - is full of overdrive. The female vocals are saturated and textured with a deep reverb, giving them a nice ghoulish/horror movie texture.

On the cover, there is an appropriately depicted spooky abandoned wooden house, somewhere in a nameless town. On the back of the cover, we see a spiritual summoning session (likely taken from a black and white horror movie). On the inside, we find a 12'' piece of sparkled wax, purple and black.

Roont is definitely making my year's end list as one of the most pleasant discoveries, and probably as one of Choking Hazards Records' best releases to date.

http://showofbedlam.bandcamp.com/
http://chokinghazardrecords.blogspot.ca/