This split-album - and indeed, I am directly going ‘into’ the actual review - starts with three tracks (Deonte, Oblitus and Dolore) by Salem, Oregon-based act Hell, a solo-outfit of former Merkstave and Elu Of The Nine member M.S.W. Once again, his contribution is an aural definition of desperation, suffering and anger, translated via slow-paced tunes of Drone, Sludge, Funeral Doom and Black Metal. It’s the kind of repetitive harshness that suffocates, haunts and mesmerizes, and even though I am very ‘befriended’ with this kind of grimness, I am truly surprised by the harshness of this effort once again. Unlike some of the past efforts, this stuff is based mainly on underground-based heaviness only, quasi without any addition of Post-Rock or acoustics (cf. the review on III, the third full length released last year; check the review posted on June 23rd 2013, done with pain and pleasure by undersigned). But do you care?...
Amarok hail from California and they might not be that known yet. Except for a self-called EP and some splits (with great Polish doomsters Enth or Swedish Sludge / Doom junks Pyramido), the band did not release anything ‘grand’ yet. Anyway, what they do on this split is just fabulous. In a wide sense, their twenty-minutes+ song (called V - Red Oak Wisdom) is comparable to the material created by Hell, but it’s little less droning, and rather focused on Black / Doom-Death / Funeral Doom grimness. This has nothing to do with ‘Post-Rock’ whatsoever (even though there is a majestic acoustic passage at half of the epic track), but in general the song brings a mostly ominous, dense and abyssal Doom-edition of the Underworld.
Both acts surely correspond and therefor it’s like a wet dream for every fan of sorrowful, droning, grim and funereal Black / Doom / Sludge Metal! Highly recommended!