The title of the new album from Connecticut’s Sea of Bones is The Earth Wants Us Dead. This may very well be the case. Have humans over-populated to the point where we’ve overstayed our welcome? Have we destroyed so much of our precious environment and its resources that Mother Earth wants us out like a parental unit wants their deadbeat 30-something kid to stop living in their basement? Tsunamis, earthquakes, “Super storms”, hurricanes and blizzards unlike any in several generations (or at all) are pretty hefty evidence that the Earth is sending us a message. Does she want us gone for good? Will she simply open up one day and swallow us all whole? Sober thoughts. Luckily if any of this goes down, Sea Of Bones has provided the soundtrack for you.
Sea of Bones, as a rule, does not write ‘feel good’ music. There are no passages of hope or inspiration here. There are only bleak and desolate aural landscapes akin to what our Earth may look like one day – arid, barren desserts where the climate is simply too harsh to survive. There’s doom metal and then there’s the type of doom metal so despondent in its delivery that a catharsis of some type should be the only reason for repeat listens. Bands like Neurosis, The Body and Primitive Man all tread in this territory frequently and successfully. Sea Of Bones lives there like some musical hermit waiting to dispel myths of a successful future for humanity. It’s altogether fascinating and anxiety fueled. Does this band know something the rest of us don’t? It’s a frightening proposition.
Sea Of Bones has been floating around the CT music scene for some time but this album was six years in the making. It was worth the wait. You don’t make music this heavy and oppressive overnight. If it could possibly take such an emotional toll on the listener one could only imagine the demons the band members must fight to make it a reality. Tracks like “Failure of Light” (which is an uplifting ditty about the last human on Earth watching the sun die out…) are so full of passion and pain that it’s easy to see why a band like Sea of Bones would take their time perfecting every note. It’s a testament to the addiction to their craft that this album took so long to see the light of day. Plus you don’t write 40 minutes songs like the title track, let alone a 40 minute album like this in any sort of quick time frame.
Fans of various forms of doom and crust will find a lot of to love on this record. The three-pronged vocal assault is a barrage of gnarled throats gargling broken glass. Each note on each track is stretched and bent into uncomfortable positions before being released, often in a brutal fury. There’s a lot to take in on this record and it will undoubtedly take multiple listens before the full effect of this album takes hold. Luckily there’s enough story in each track for us to get the gist, which is to say, our future may be bleak but Sea Of Bones will at least put a soundtrack to it for you.
The Earth Wants Us Dead will hit streets later this year but to get you ready for the release you can stream the track “Black Arm” now.
