Just announced: This Friday is Bandcamp Friday for the first time in 2025. So if you have been planning to make any music purchases, tomorrow would be a great time to do it, because 100% of the funds end up in the pocket of the band or record label (and not the corporate overlords who own Bandcamp).

However, if you have dollars (or euros, francs, dinars, whatever) burning a hole in your pocket and you don’t have anything in particular to spend it on — please feel free to browse the archives here at Valley of Steel for recommendations. And here are two more worth checking out, each a lengthy chunk of heavy doom, each originally released by the respective band last year, and each recently re-released as cassette tapes by our Dutch friends at Breathe Plastic Records.

 

Orme – No Serpents, No Saviours (self-released 23 August 2024 / cassette reissue by Breathe Plastic, 31 January 2025)

 

The Weir – Grasping (self-released 04 October 2024 / cassette reissue by Breathe Plastic, 31 January 2025)

 

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First up, last summer UK drone/doom trio Orme dropped an EP consisting of a single 24-minute track, both of which (EP and song) were called No Serpents, No Saviours. The title is likely based on the structure of a well-known anarchist/labor slogan, but with the elements of the phrase replaced by two of the main characters from the Christian Bible. This sentiment, repeated in the song’s lyrics as “No Gods above / Or Hell below,” seems on the surface to reflect a similar message in “Imagine” — but as the tone here makes abundantly clear, the actual meaning is the exact opposite. Rather, “This spheroid tomb” is nothing more than a desolate hellscape in itself, effectuated solely by its inhabitants and not by any extranatural being or force, either benevolent OR malevolent.

The song “No Serpents, No Saviours” has all the usual hallmarks of ultra-heavy doom: feedback, distortion, glacial riffs, thunderous drums, and deep guttural roars. Over its long running length, the track alternates between some intensive peaks and more minimalistic valleys. The former stretches, generally in between verses, are often characterized by the inclusion of a soaring solo guitar solo, particularly prominent over the last several minutes of the EP, where the band also introduces some distorted organ chords tied in with the rhythm section, contributing to the building-up of the sound, until ultimately it all fades to nothing. As shall we all, which seems to be the overarching takeaway here.

 

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Next, we’ve got Grasping, which first made its way out into the world this past October, from western Canada sludge/doom foursome The Weir. This one includes a pair of tracks, spanning just over half an hour in total.

Both of these — “Rope Dance” and “Bitter Breath” — tend to be fairly bleak and sparse; they too are built upon heavily-distorted slow-paced riffs with rather gruff vocals, but overall lean in more of an atmospheric direction: generally more forlorn then vitriolic. Here the band sometimes find themselves falling into the unison syncopated staccato riff thing that you’ll hear in compositions by contemporaries like Primitive Man or Fister — and so surely this material would be highly recommended for fans of such fare as those, except just a bit cleaner, perhaps not sounding quite so much like it’s dripping in rotting filth?

 

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Stream or download No Serpents, No Saviours at Orme‘s Bandcamp here, and grab the new cassette version here (Breathe Plastic webshop) or here (Breathe Plastic Bandcamp).

The Grasping digital or vinyl editions can be found at The Weir‘s here, while the newly-released cassette tapes are over here (Breathe Plastic webshop) or over there (Breathe Plastic Bandcamp).

 

 

Orme: Bandcamp | Instagram
 
The Weir: Bandcamp
 
Breathe Plastic: website | store | Bandcamp | Instagram