Splits are always fun. What a great way to get tracks by a couple of artists in a small sexy package. My fave splits are those that contain bands that sit together aesthetically but have enough difference that I can tell when the split happens – especially as I am not flipping a record over so much these days.

Blackbow records have festooned my ears with two gems on this particular offering.

I am familiar with Belfast sludgemeisters Slomatics, having had the wax in my ears loosened by them in the past but Ungraven were new to me.

An extracurricular project by Conan’s Jon Davis Ungraven sees the UK doom hero joined by Fudge Tunnel bassists David Ryley and Tuskar drummer Tyler Hodges.  what the trio do is pummel the listener with sounds from the filth ridden days of industrial metal crossover. Godflesh, Nailbomb, Pailhead and Ministry are all thrust in an industrial cement mixer, covered in molten lead and poured into the foundations of each of the three tracks on offer here.  The music is deliciously heavy with each instrument evenly distributed so they hit at the same time like a pneumatic clamp. Davis’ vocals are distant and desolate sounding as though they were recorded in the next postcode. Great stuff.

Slomatics take things from the industrial smog to the primordial swamp with their fuzzed up sludge.  Fans of Moss will dig the sound here – this is Doom with the distortion turned up to 11.

There is a real sense of drama throughout the three tracks on offer here with each one feeling like an incantation to an ancient otherworldly being (let’s face it they probably are).  There are fragments of space dust in the swirling soup – with Proto hag evoking some Ufomammut vibes. What purveys throughout is huge fucking fuzzy riffs that made my beard grow another two inches. The final track of this collection had to be good, well it isn’t – it’s great (ha that is the last time I do that kind of Simon Cowell bollocks). Monitors is a soaring epic that appears to mix sludge, doom, post rock and even post punk a la Bauhaus in an uplifting yet sombre platter of filth. Bloody lovely.

With this split Blackbow have shone a light on a dark corner of the UK underground and rather than welcome these creatures into the light I recommend we all take a dive into the darkness with them.

(8.5/10 Matt Mason)

https://www.facebook.com/Slomatics

https://www.facebook.com/ungraven

https://slomatics.bandcamp.com/album/split-with-ungraven