When we last covered the doom metal supergroup SLOWER, they were taking the thrash metal relics of Slayer’s best songs and filtering them through a world-smashingly heavy filter. It made some of you question some things and others just considered it blasphemy and moved on. And while that’s certainly your prerogative, SLOWER’s back to premiere the title track and one of the four original songs found on their upcoming sophomore album Rage And Ruin.
Set for release on November 1 via Heavy Psych Sounds, SLOWER’s output this time around will once again include a couple Slayer covers, but it’s the originals that are particularly exciting, given the pedigree of musicians involved in the act.
SLOWER is comprised of Fu Manchu guitarist and project mastermind Bob Balch, Monolord’s Esben Willems on drums, Lowrider’s Peder Bergstrand on bass, Year of the Cobra vocalist Amy Barrysmith, Kylesa vocalist Laura Pleasants, and Kyuss bassist Scott Reeder.
Speaking of the track, “Rage And Ruin,” Balch said he knew the band would need to take a slightly different approach with its creation.
“’Rage And Ruin’ was the last song written for the album. After listening to what we had so far, I felt that we needed a song with a mellow intro and a different tuning to set it apart from the other jams. As a music theory dork, I also thought it would be a good idea to use a harmonic minor mode to give it a different vibe from the other songs.”
As you can hear below, the song maintains SLOWER’s well… slow pace. With guitars fuzzed out and tuned down, a rhythm section that marches forward, and vocals that float through the whole thing with enough reverb to disorient a vampire bat, “Rage And Ruin” has enough doom metal in its bones that its deviations to the model manage to shine even brighter as a result.
When asked, Barrysmith echoed that sentiment, explaining how her part came together as a result of the song’s overarching feel.
“‘Rage and Ruin’ was the last song we wrote together and quickly became the title track. As soon as Bob sent me his ideas and I heard that beautiful intro, I got so excited and inspired. It immediately became one of my favorites. I love how it is a slight departure from the other songs, but still fits in perfectly.”
Slower’s Rage And Ruin will be released on November 1 via Heavy Psych Sounds, but you can preorder your copy today.
