Review & Full Album Premiere: Slomatics, Atomicult
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on September 11th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Atomicult is the eighth full-length from Northern Ireland’s Slomatics, recorded as always by Rocky O’Reilly at Start Together Studio, mastered by James Plotkin with cover art by Ryan Lesser. The same team worked on 2023’s Strontium Fields (review here) and only one of the six records the sans-bass-who-needs-it three-piece have released since 2012 wasn’t produced by O’Reilly [trivia: it was 2016’s Future Echo Returns (review here), produced by Chris Fielding], so but for the fact that it’s their first time issuing through Majestic Mountain Records, one might be forgiven for getting an impression of Atomicult as continuing the thread. In some ways, that is actively the case. As with Strontium Fields, the familiar aspects become a backdrop against which to highlight sonic progression and risks being taken.
If you have followed that progression since, say, 2012’s breakout A Hocht (discussed here), or really from any step along the way — and if you haven’t, if Atomicult is your first go with the band; I’m not gatekeeping, I’m trying to provide context — then the songs will likely land as more mature. The runtimes are relatively short — side B leadoff “Physical Witching” runs 5:59 and is the longest inclusion — but as drummer/synthesist Marty Harvey‘s far-off vocals start “Obey Capricorn” at the album’s outset, the sense isn’t necessarily that the band are shooting for immediacy outright.
There’s a few seconds, in other words, before guitarists David Majury and Chris Couzens bludgeon the listener with their signature heft of tone. Over their last few outings, in Strontium Fields‘ and their 2022 Ascend/Descend split with Domkraft (review here), for example, the blend of keyboardy expanse and distorted crush, with the vocals cutting through to soar with increasing capacity, has emerged as the general direction. Where 11 years ago, Estron (review here) helped establish them among the heaviest of riffly purveyors the world over — something twice as impressive considering the lack of bass guitar — Atomicult inevitably pulls into emphasis just how much besides being really, really heavy Slomatics put into their craft.
As an example, “Auto-Skull.” At just under five minutes long, it follows “Obey Capricorn” and the hooky nodder “Phantom Castle Warning” at the start of the record, picking up the hints of harmonizing keys under Harvey‘s vocals and expanding the reach to coincide with the ultra-heavy impact of its central chug. As soulful as it is noisy and among the more memorable movements of Atomicult, it’s less sci-fi synth-based in its unfolding than “Physical Witching” later and not as outright neanderthalic in its riff as closer “To Ultramegaphonium,” and so finds a balance that typifies and summarizes a lot of what’s working throughout. The same might be said of “Chrome Sisters” on side B, and part of why is because these songs play to traditional strengths for the band in terms of their elemental blend and the delivery.
A broader reach is found in “Relics,” which follows “Auto-Skull” and turns from that familiar ground to letting the drums sit it out while the keys and guitars give an unrepentantly shimmering backdrop to the vocals, which accordingly are showcased in a different way than, to my admittedly flawed memory, they ever have been. Harvey, to his credit, carries the piece ably without being domineering in the mix. It is a difficult balance to strike, and very clearly a case of Slomatics doing something outside their wheelhouse. Eight albums in, I wouldn’t discount the possibility of that kind of self-awareness being a partial motivator in including “Relics” at all, but however it got there, it plays a large role in the ambience of this record and, perhaps more importantly, enables future expansion along the same lines. It’s something else for them to build on as they no doubt continue to build on everything else here moving forward, is what I mean.
The first two minutes of “Night Grief” renew the march, but the song drops to a baseline chug, drone, and still-tense drum thuds as the building foundation for the eventual slam back to final tonality, and the ensuing instrumental role is satisfying enough to warrant the build to it, so I’m not complaining. They’ve already broadened expectations for structure with “Relics.” Might as well use that to bury the audience alive with riffs. Blips and bloops commence “Physical Witching” and the showcase for expanded-definition Slomatics continues. Vocals in layers touch on harmony in the second half of the song, which makes the now-you-get-eaten lurch that ensues in “Chrome Sisters” a welcome return to ground. Slomatics gonna Slomatics? Yeah, but if not them, who?
And it’s not like they don’t keep the outward-looking trajectory alongside. “Biclops” floats in a way I’m not sure Slomatics ever have, and certainly not for any lack of weight in the distortion, but the balance of the mix puts the vocals forward, and as they move through the last key/chug chorus, the feel is lighter somehow as they move into the minute-long interlude “Summer Skeletons,” perhaps named for the wistfulness of its sound. If they’re longing for something, however, “To Ultramegaphonium” is a hell of a manifestation. The lyrics take a more spiritual cast, but the catharsis of the music itself remains physical around that, and I’m not sure the two need or actually have any distinguishing from one to the other.
As far out as Slomatics have reached here — maybe farther than they need to in terms of their audience’s expectation, but following their own whims as ever — at their core they remain engrossing in the depth of their tones, and their sound is no less identifiable now than it has been at any point in the better part of the last 15 years. But that doesn’t mean they’re not still growing, still learning, still exploring new ideas, either. Atomicult strikes a balance between these two sides, reinforcing what people know and seem to want from the band while satisfying impulses toward artistic progression and a maturity that to-date has only grown more dynamic with time. That they know who they want to collaborate with and why is part of knowing who they are and want to be as a band. On that level, Atomicult can only rightly be called the work of masters of the form.
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