You never know where or when you’re gonna discover something mind-blowing. But get on a few Twitter feeds (while it lasts), get into some Facebook groups: I recommend Stoner Rock Army and Ripple’s Waverider Unite for a good start. You will find something interesting.
What I never expected was a rich vein of heavy gold on Twitter. So, I’m just following dozens of people one night when I get a response: “Thanks for the follow!” Simple, quick and easy. Oh, they’re a band! In Raleigh. Like 20 minutes from me. How cute!
Because of inverse Proximity Bias, I immediately figure anyone that close to me’s gotta be an upcoming band, destined to be obscure and forgetable. Any band worth listening to is going to be hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away.
It’s impossible to keep up with everything coming out every band out there. Even if I listened to every album on the Doom Charts, that’d still be less than 10% of what comes out on any given month. But still, holy fuck how did I miss this?!?! They even ranked #94 on the year-end charts. Top 100 means you’ve got some serious skill or talent in your game. And yet…I totally missed this!
Now that I’m over the initial shock and embarrassment, it just goes to prove that a great album is worth checking out no matter when something comes out. Even if this came out in 2002 or whenever, In Idle Orbit probably needs to be in your library if you’re a fan of truly dark, heavy and original take on heavy riffs and head-banging grooves. Just a few listens under my belt, and I already consider essential.
The first thing that hit me is the TONE of this monster. There really is nothing like the sound of tube amps driven over the edge. Every effort has been made to capture that feeling throughout the recording, from the opening squeals to the droning wails. But what’s amazing is, while the sound carries throughout the length of the album, it never gets boring.
The best way I can describe it is it’s like they spent way too much time in some subterranean dwelling somewhere in North Carolina. I can almost smell the boiled peanuts and crawdads, with liberal Cajun heat melting one’s mouth. The place is festooned with lava lamps, black lights and various psychedelic posters glowing like spent uranium. The speakers and the amp are way too big for place, and they have the loudness on with the bass/treble rolled all the way up. Something vintage, 70’s era Kenwood or Sansui. The turntable rests on a slab of granite.
One by one, they put various heavy albums on from the past 50 years. I few seconds in, they toss the record into a corner, shrugging while the voice of a Balrog croaks, “We can be heavier than that.”
Indeed.
But they aren’t just heavy. Doomsday Profit manages to take things right to the line, then pull back like pro’s who’ve been here before. There’s plenty of nuance in these tracks, and a never-ending groove that keeps everything interesting. The rhythm section is deceptively simple, and just when you think you know where things are going, they throw in a little zig to let you know they aren’t zagging. Clever stuff.
I’m sorry I missed these guys last year, but I’m glad I found them now. Doomsday Profit is the kind of band I’m always looking for. Only better…
