Coltsblood was very active within the doom and sludge realms in the early 2010’s, regularly putting out splits in between their two full-length albums. Following 2017’s Ascending Into Shimmering Darkness the UK group would go quiet for some time, only emerging briefly in 2019 to contribute a lengthy track on a split with fellow doom band Un. But this year Coltsblood has broken this extended period of silence with their third full-length Obscured Into Nebulous Dusk, which takes their core sound and refines things down to an even darker and grittier sound. Once again blurring the lines between funeral doom, death/doom, and sludge, the group’s more concise approach and bleak atmosphere is as appealing as ever and will captivate fans of the style.
As someone that found some pieces of Coltsblood’s prior albums a bit overstretched, the more concise run-time of Obscured Into Nebulous Dusk makes a significant difference and it’s clear that the band has figured out how to make the most of the forty-two minute run. There are still a lot of drawn out, slow build-ups that channel quite a bit of funeral doom, but the material tends to pick up the tempo just as things feel like they’re starting to reach a lull which shocks the listener back to attention. “Waning of the Wolf Moon” also opts to go for straight-up death/doom for much of its run, adopting a burlier bottom-heavy tone and much faster pace that bludgeons the listener with pounding drums and dense riffing. For the uninitiated, this makes Coltsblood feel like someone injected death/doom and faster sludge into a Bell Witch or Skepticism framework, but the transitions are fluid and give the group a sound that remains different from their peers. There’s an interesting back and forth between grittier and cleaner tonality, as opener “Until the Eidolon Falls” has a much grittier, bleak atmosphere while “Transcending the Immortal Gateway” incorporates more somber melodies that remind me of Mournful Congregation. There are a lot of subtle nuances that become more apparent over time, but the peaks and valleys have an immediate draw for fans of the genre. Admittedly the way that “Transcending the Immortal Gateway” and the title track ebb and flow does prove to be a little too similar and it has been hard to tell which one you’re listening to when spending extended periods of time with the album. But this is a minor flaw that doesn’t detract from the power this material has, and it’s evident that the long incubation period has served Coltsblood well.
Bassist John McNulty has also served as the band’s vocalist since their inception, so if you’ve heard any prior material the approach here should be familiar. In typical doom fashion the verses are fairly spaced out, making each appearance as intense as possible. Opener “Until the Eidolon Falls” takes its time to get to the vocals, as it isn’t until almost five minutes in that McNulty’s extremely low growls come booming out of your speakers. The switch over to death/doom on “Waning of the Wolf Moon” is where the vocals become the most prominent, as you then have some higher screams interspersed with the growls. This is another area where it feels like Coltsblood has honed in on how to space out the verses in a way that makes them the most impactful, which goes a long way.
The last two songs do run together slightly, but the more compact nature of Coltsblood’s third album makes their gritty and somber doom, death, and everything in between stand out. It feels like in the lengthy period since their last album that the band has refined things down to their most potent levels yet, and if you have yet to experience their blend of doom before this is a great starting point. Hopefully it won’t take nearly as long to hear where the band goes from here though, as there’s plenty of different directions they could head in. Obscured Into Nebulous Dusk is available from Translation Loss Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg