Geomancer Releasing Khatt al-Raml Next Week
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 10th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
I won’t claim to be any kind of expert on mystical forces, but it seems to me that if Northern UK sludge extremists Geomancer might want to live up to their name and read the future from the contours of the earth, it might due to let up on crushing everything in their path. On the other hand, maybe they should just stick to being heavy as hell and leave the divinations to those less bent on destruction. The only sub-10-minute track on Khatt al-Raml — which is out on Jan. 15 via Inverted Grim-Mill Recordings — is the centerpiece interlude “Visions,” and beyond that, it’s all lumber and pummel from the three-piece, but the debut outing has a heady sense of atmosphere amid its bleached-bone riffing as well. The Eastern influence isn’t necessarily as pronounced as the PR wire info below makes it out to be, but neither is it totally absent.
Either way, the intention would seem to be to conjure as much heft as possible, and in that, Geomancer certainly seem to have read the right path forward.
Album art and details follow:
Post-doom trio Geomancer to release debut album January 15th
Digital download, with CD pre-orders through Inverted Grim-Mill Recordings
Post-doom three-piece Geomancer will release their debut full-length album, ‘Khatt Al-Raml’, on January 15th in association with Inverted Grim-Mill Recordings. Stretching the boundaries of modern doom, ‘Khatt Al-Raml’ is an ambitious first record from the North England-based trio that refuses to be restricted by genre conventions. The result is over 45 minutes of head-turning metal-meets-stoner-meets-sludge that nods to post-rock as much as it does Electric Wizard, Bongripper, and Zaum.
Engineered and mixed by Tom Goodall of Mirrorman Recordings (Ghold, Cattle, Groak) at Leeds’ legendary CHUNK, ‘Khatt Al-Raml’ captures the live energy that’s earned the group a following in England’s North East, their base since forming in 2013. Achieved by recording each song live in single takes, the result is a collection of tracks that are raw while retaining an atmospheric scale the group has worked hard to create.
The band’s goal has always been to sound different and avoid doom clichés while keeping all the genre’s heaviness. By doing things like laying Eastern scales next to massive hypnotic doom sections while mixing in post rock passages and metal influences, the group is confident ‘Khatt Al-Raml’ is a fresh take on the old doom, stoner, and sludge sound.
That aforementioned Eastern influence – heard especially on the powerful intro to ‘Sacrifice’, and throughout eponymous cut ‘Geomancer’ – is echoed in the stunning artwork, created by hyper talented British artist Thee Ruiner, and the album’s title, ‘Khatt Al-Raml’. It means sand divination, sand writing, or sand cutting in Arabic, which itself reflects the band’s name; a geomancer divines messages from the earth, interpreting lines and symbols on the ground.
Geomancer will release ‘Khatt Al-Raml’ first via digital download through Bandcamp on January 15th (geomancer.bandcamp.com), and take CD pre-orders via Inverted Grim-Mill Recordings (Kylver, Geist, Lovely Wife, Lump Hammer) ahead of a Spring release (invertedgrim-millrecordings.bandcamp.com).
‘Khatt Al-Raml’ tracklisting:
1. Geomancer
2. Grief
3. Visions
4. Greed
5. Sacrifice
Geomancer is:
Rich Cartey – vocals, guitar
Calum Piercy – bass
Ruben Guastapaglia – drums
Credits:
Engineered and mixed by Tom Goodall, Mirrorman Recordings, at CHUNK, Leeds
Mastered by Matthew Deamer, Glide Studio
Artwork by Thee Ruiner
geomancer.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/geomanceruk
invertedgrim-millrecordings.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/invertedgrimmillrecordings
