Windhand does a thing and does it well: gargantuan doom-metal smoked in moody grunge. From album to album, the Richmond band recognizes its strengths and pushes them forward. Out in September, Grief's Infernal Flower digs the soulful and harrowing vocalist Dorthia Cottrell out of the mix while richly heightening the loud-as-hell-but-smooth-as-butter riffs. Ryan Wolfe's drums have never sounded so round and pronounced, given that extra oomph from producer Jack Endino (High On Fire, Soundgarden, Nirvana).
Opening with an acoustic guitar and warbling organ, "Crypt Key" is a creeping doom-metal waltz, here visualized with an array of cult images layered on top of each other. Director Jordan Vance writes:
I compiled clips of archived film that I thought looked like what I was hearing. In addition to old film, I used clips from shows that I've shot of Windhand and various other random situations that I went out and shot on my camera to make a sort of foundation to accent the music here and there.
Grief's Infernal Flower comes out Sept. 18 on Relapse.
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