The Organ (Gravity album review)

Rustorm– Gravity (self release) – Says here on this piece of electronic paper that “the new album from the ethereal doom-core titans Rustorm – the band formed by ex-members of seminal 90s alt-metal band Pulkas – is released on March 7th 2025” and so here we are again, digging more holes to the pit of our souls while the new album featuring Rob Lewis (guitar, vocals and programming) alongside Jules McBride (bass and programming) delivers what they claim is “an orgy of frequency-defying low-end guitars, gravel-filled vocals and hypnotic earth shaking bass-lines interspersed with strings, synths, piano and atmospheric samples”. Fair enough, they kind of hit their own nail on the head right there with that description, not sure it is an orgy though? Does two guys making a whole load of doomy noise constitute an orgy? How many people do you need for an orgy?

Rob and Jules first moved mountains together in Pulkas, the band that released their much-loved album Greed through Earache Records in 1998 – then split up! Just over 20 years later the pair teamed up again as Rustorm to create their own unique blend of atmospheric, groove laden, ultra-heavy music, a sound they describe as ethereal doom-core”. Actually it feels a little to bright to be shoved in the corner marked doom, I mean it is doomy, it is far more than that though, they touch on post rock, maybe a slight hint or two off Godspeed Your Black Emperor in there with slight touches of Meshuggah, and yes, they do still sound a lot like Pulkas with all that blackness closing in, they are still digging holes, if Suzie The Swimmer was still around then she’s be swimming in this. Yeah, we go a long way back with Pulkas, before the Earache thing there was us lot here at ORG Records, all that early stuff still sounds good to us and so does this.  Song titles  like Blackening, Low-Down, Drown It Out and Collapsing Time give you more than idea, they’re still about a great big riff, they still deliver it with that attitude that made them popular with the UK Hardcore crossover crowd back there for a while, they’re still punching things out.

      Rustorm released their Death Valley Speed Trap EP in 2020 and debut album Razed To The Ground in 2022. “Now they are proud to unveil their latest full-length work Gravity” (and proud to be to be releasing it independently). Says here that For live work, Rustorm have “recruited the legendary Anti-Nowhere League drummer Dave ‘NATO’ Hazlewood”. This latest album is as darkly intense as anything Rob and Jules have done,they’re as heavy as ever, yes it is doom flavoured, it is a lot more than just that though, it is once again a beautifully brooding set of things, good things, big things, once again, as we said last time, it is Pulkas and at the same time it isn’t, which is of course just what we want from Rustorm…  (sw)