Check eBay for defunct doomers Slow Horse and you’re going to find that for either of their two records, 1998’s Slow Horse or 2001’s Slow Horse II, will cost you over $50 a pop. It’s a big internet and there are cheaper options available at least for the second album (including through the band), but it speaks to the kind of cult following the band has garnered over the years before and after their breakup. I’m willing to wager less than 0.0001 percent of the world’s population has ever heard of the band, yet those who know what they’re looking for are willing to pay to get in on the action.

I got lucky. My copy of the self-titled I picked up a while back at Vintage Vinyl in Fords for a whopping $4. Slow Horse II was ordered from this marvelous big truck we call the intertubes, and both records have proven to be enduring standouts among their shelf-peers. There’s something about the attitude and obscurity of the material that gives it a charm — like a secret full of killer riffs and stoned melodies that only a few people know.

Slow Horse formed in Brooklyn in 1997. Imagine that. In a sea of Korn-ripoff n?-metal awfulness, here comes three dudes with slow, sad, non-dissonant songs not about being the toughest guy in the world or being molested by their dads. Hell, on the first album, they covered Chris Isaak‘s “Wicked Game!” If you want to talk about not fitting in, “Wicked Game” in pre-irono-hipster-fascist Brooklyn just about covers it. And it’s a pretty killer cover too.

By the time they got around to Slow Horse II, their sound had developed into the eastern seaboard’s emotionally heavier answer to Goatsnake. Replacing that easygoing California groove with some raw New York intensity, the band managed to carve a niche for themselves that has yet to be duplicated to this day. I’m not going to say they never got their due, because anyone whose first record is selling for $65 and up is definitely being shown some respect (even if they’re not getting that money), but if you haven’t heard them in a while or never managed to track down either album, consider this a friendly recommendation. There are songs up on their MySpace and guitarist/vocalist Dan Buckszpan seems to be the guy to talk to about purchases.

Only bummer is it looks like when they broke up they had new material that never came out. If you look on their website, it says, “The band has been writing new material for their eventual third release, on a label to be determined…” which says to me there was a part of the story that never got told. Maybe they’ll get together in another decade like Snail and put it out. That’s a nice thought.