Ammothea Digs Into Doomgaze Anachronism On "Terminal Burrow" (Full Album Stream)

Aside from a select few artists, this idea of “metalgaze” or “doomgaze” fizzled out in the late 2000s. Make no mistake, this isn’t like post-metal or post-rock or shoegaze in an explicit sense. Metalgaze (or doomgaze if you feel like venturing into the more specific) is quite literally metal’s answer to rock music’s shoegaze style. This means lots of effects pedals, riffing, and heavy-handed atmospheres, but in a distinctly heavier (and in doomgaze Ammothea‘s case, slower) sense.

Terminal Burrow, Ammothea’s debut full-length album, looks to doom metal as a backbone and builds upon it in the same way My Bloody Valentine erects kingdoms over jangling indie rock. In this sense, Ammothea is heavy, but more in an overwhelming type of way. There are elements of deliberation in the way songwriter Ammothea and drummer Sean Beaty lock into glacial grooves and pummeling metalisms, but a lot goes into the randomness that comes with additional effects. Harmonic chains buckle, melodies decay, and volume increases exponentially. This is a loud album, but it is meant to be all-encompassing. Finding solace in the trail blazed by The Angelic Process and Nadja, Ammothea’s entry into the doomgaze and metalgaze book is a powerful tribute to a niche style, bringing it into a new decade.

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Terminal Burrow releases today on Realm and Ritual, with tapes to follow soon.